Tolofon ( el, Τολοφών, also Τολοφώνας, ''Tolofonas''; before 1927: Βιτρινίτσα, ''Vitrinitsa'') is a village and a former municipality in

Phocis Phocis ( el, Φωκίδα ; grc, Φωκίς) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. It stretches from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Vardo ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality

Dorida Dorida ( el, Δωρίδα) is a municipality in the Phocis regional unit, Central Greece, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Lidoriki. The municipality has an area of 998.893 km2. Municipality The municipality Dorida was forme ...

, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 131.384 km². In 2011 its population was 2,762. The seat of the municipality was in

Erateini Eratini ( el, Ερατεινή) is a village in the southern part of Phocis, Greece. It was the municipal seat of the municipality of Tolofon. Eratini is situated on the Gulf of Corinth, 14 km west of Galaxidi, 19 km south of Lidoriki, 23 km southw ...

. The ancient site of ''Tolophon'' is located in the northeastern part of the municipal unit. It is situated on the mountainous north coast of the

Gulf of Corinth The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf ( el, Κορινθιακός Kόλπος, ''Korinthiakόs Kόlpos'', ) is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea, separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. It is bounded in the east by the Isth ...

History and archaeology

The region of Tolofon along with the valley of

were relatively densely populated in the

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

and early historic periods according to archaeological finds. Architectural remains and burial traces dated to the

Middle Helladic Helladic chronology is a relative dating system used in archaeology and art history. It complements the Minoan chronology scheme devised by Sir Arthur Evans for the categorisation of Bronze Age artefacts from the Minoan civilization within a his ...

period have been excavated on the beach of Tolofon and around the rupestral church of St. Paraskevi. At the site of Mathiou (or Marathiou) there are some visible remains of a Cyclopean fortification, typical of the

Mycenaean era Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...

, and some fortifications at the sites Bouhouri and Palaiokastro of Vitrinitsa are also extant. A Mycenaean settlement existed on the Pitha hill, known due to Mycenaean pottery and shards being discovered at the site. The same hill was inhabited also in later periods, as attested by the fortifications of the Classical and

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

periods. Scholars identify the site as ancient Oeantheia, one of the main cities of western

Locris Locris (; el, label=Modern Greek, Λοκρίδα, Lokrída; grc, Λοκρίς, Lokrís) was a region of ancient Greece, the homeland of the Locrians, made up of three distinct districts. Locrian tribe The city of Locri in Calabria (Italy), a ...

, but there is no secure testimony to that identification. However, large parts of the building material of the site has been reused, for example at the medieval tower on the foothill of Pitha and at the Church of the Evangelistria (Panagia Polyportou), a Byzantine church of the 10th-11th century A.D. Finally, at Marathias (close to Erateini) a burial within a

pithos Pithos (, grc-gre, πίθος, plural: ' ) is the Greek name of a large storage container. The term in English is applied to such containers used among the civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean Sea in the Neolithic, the Bronze Age and ...

(large jar) dated to the 7th century B.C. revealed a large number of Corinthian vessels, particularly

aryballoi An aryballos (Greek: ἀρύβαλλος; plural aryballoi) was a small spherical or globular flask with a narrow neck used in Ancient Greece."aryballos" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1 ...

, as well as a scarab made of

fayence Fayence (; oc, Faiença) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 5,735. Fayence is one of a series of "perched villages" overlooking the plain between ...

, now on display at the

Archaeological Museum of Amfissa Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes ...

. These finds attest to the commercial relations between the two shores of the

Corinthian Gulf The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf ( el, Κορινθιακός Kόλπος, ''Korinthiakόs Kόlpos'', ) is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea, separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. It is bounded in the east by the Isth ...

. The modern settlement was established in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

as Vitrinitsa (from the Slavic ''Větrьnica'', "windy place") and is first mentioned as one of the places plundered by the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Fran ...

in 1147. Following the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

(1204), it became part of the

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

Lordship of Salona The Lordship of Salona, after 1318 the County of Salona, was a Crusader state established after the Fourth Crusade (1204) in Central Greece, around the town of Salona (modern Amfissa, known in French as ''La Sole'' and Italian as ''La Sola''). ...

. A small castle was built on a hill on the western edge of the plain, attested to in literary sources in the 14th century but possibly built earlier. Only its ruined foundations survive today. Under

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

rule after 1311, it was often given as an independent fief within the County of Salona, under its own

castellan A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant o ...

. It was captured by the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

in 1394, and then by the

Despot of the Morea The Despotate of the Morea ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μορέως) or Despotate of Mystras ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μυστρᾶ) was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centu ...

Theodore I Palaiologos Theodore I Palaiologos (or Palaeologus) ( el, Θεόδωρος Α΄ Παλαιολόγος, translit=Theodōros I Palaiologos) (c. 1355 – 24 June 1407) was despot (''despotēs'') in the Morea from 1383 until his death on 24 June 1407. A son of Em ...

in 1397. The latter ceded it, along with the entire County of Salona, to the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

in 1403–04. The Ottomans regained the area soon after, but ceded Vitrinitsa to the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

. In 1445, the Despot of the Morea

Constantine Palaiologos Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos or Dragaš Palaeologus ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Δραγάσης Παλαιολόγος, ''Kōnstantînos Dragásēs Palaiológos''; 8 February 1405 – 29 May 1453) was the last Roman (Byzantine) e ...

occupied the castle and port. It is possible that the settlement of Katakouzenopolis (''Κατακουζηνόπολις''), which

Cyriacus of Ancona Cyriacus of Ancona or Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli (31 July 1391 – 1453/55) was a restlessly itinerant Italian humanist and antiquarian who came from a prominent family of merchants in Ancona, a maritime republic on the Adriatic. He has been called ...

visited in the area in 1448 and which he identified with Oeantheia, is to be identified with Vitrinitsa. The entire area finally came under Ottoman control shortly after.

Subdivisions

The municipal unit Tolofon is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets): *Elaia (Elaia, Agios Ioannis island) *

*Glyfada (Glyfada, Dafnochori) *

Kallithea Kallithea (Greek: Καλλιθέα, meaning "beautiful view") is a district of Athens and a municipality in south Athens regional unit. It is the eighth largest municipality in Greece (96,118 inhabitants, 2021 census) and the fourth biggest i ...

(Kallithea, Agia Eirini, Agios Nikolaos, Agios Nikolaos island, Agios Spyridonas, Klovinos, Prasoudi island, Flampourakia) *Makrini * Milea *Panormos (Panormos, Ormos Lemonias) *Tolofon (Tolofon, Paralia Tolofonos) *Trizonia ( Trizonia island, Chania, Spilia)

Population

External links

Official website of the municipality of Tolofon at fokida.gr

Tolofon on the GTP Travel Pages
*http://www.fokida.gr/site/categories/prefokida/municipalities/Tolofonas.csp *Ways of Pausanias: Ancient Locris: http://arcadia.ceid.upatras.gr/pausanias/article.php?id=89

Bibliography

*Pascual,J., 2013, ''Topography and History of Ancient Epicnemidian Locris'', Brill Academic Publishers

References