Tsaritsani or Tsiaritsiani ( el, Τσαριτσάνη, or el, Τσαρίτσιανη, ) is a village and a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

of the Elassona municipality. Before the 2011 local government reform, it was an independent community. The 2011 census recorded 2,040 inhabitants in the village. The community of Tsaritsani covers an area of 57.791 km².

Population

According to the 2011 census, the population of the settlement of Tsaritsani was 2,040 people, a decrease of almost 12% compared with the population of the previous census of 2001.

Geography

Tsaritsani lies in the northwestern part of Larissa regional unit, 40 km from

Larissa Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...

, at the foot of

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...

. It has a land area of 57.791 km². Its geography includes farmlands in the valley areas, the mountains are around the area as well as grasslands, ledges are to be founded in some areas and barren area in the higher elevations.

Economy

The population of Tsaritsani is occupied in

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

(mainly

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

) and

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

History

The name of Tsaritsani is of Slavic origin, most likely from

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

Tsaritsa Tsarina or tsaritsa (also spelled ''csarina'' or ''csaricsa'', ''tzarina'' or ''tzaritza'', or ''czarina'' or ''czaricza''; bg, царица, tsaritsa; sr, / ; russian: царица, tsaritsa) is the title of a female autocratic ruler (mona ...

. The history of Tsaritsani starts with the Slavic settlement of Greece in the seventh century AD. The settlement is recorded as village and with two names first as "Kiliseli" and as "Çerniçani" in the Ottoman Tahrir

Defter A ''defter'' (plural: ''defterler'') was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Description The information collected could vary, but ''tahrir defterleri'' typically included details of villages, dwellings, household ...

number 101 dating to 1521. The village participated in the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

and offered fighters to the Sacred Band. The first guerilla groups of the

Greek People's Liberation Army Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

in the area were created from residents of Tsaritsani. The village witnessed mass execution of its people twice, on 12 March 1943 and on 20 August 1944 by the Italian and German occupation forces respectively. As a result, Tsaritsani is a stronghold of the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

. In the European Parliament elections of 2014 the

Communist Party of Greece The Communist Party of Greece ( el, Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας, ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a political party in Greece. Founded in 1918 as the Socialist Labour Party of Greece and adopted its curren ...

received a 30.83% share of the vote in the village, when its nationwide share was 6.11%.

Sports

Tsaritsani is home to Oikonomos Tsaritsani, a football club that has competed in the third tier of Greek football. Greek international footballer

Giorgos Mitsibonas Georgios Mitsibonas (Greek: Γεώργιος Μητσιμπόνας; 11 November 1962 – 13 September 1997) was a Greek football player during the 1980s and 1990s. Biography Mitsibonas was born in 1962 in the village of Tsaritsani ( Larissa r ...

, a Tsaritsani native, started his career from the club.

References

External links

Cultural Club of Tsaritsani
{{Elassona div Populated places in Larissa (regional unit)