Gorgopotamos ( el, Γοργοπόταμος) is a village and a former municipality in

Phthiotis Phthiotis ( el, Φθιώτιδα, ''Fthiótida'', ; ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Φθιῶτις) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. The capital is the city of Lamia. It is borde ...

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 ...

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

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 157.300 km². It is located 8 km southwest of Lamia and 34 km north of Amfissa. In 2011 its population was 453 for the village and 3,374 for the municipal unit. The seat of the municipality was in Moschochori. It is named after the river

Gorgopotamos Gorgopotamos ( el, Γοργοπόταμος) is a village and a former municipality in Phthiotis, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lamia, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an are ...

which flows through the municipal unit (its name means in Greek "the rushing river"). The Oiti mountains, a national park, lie to the southwest. The northeastern part of the municipal unit lies in the wide and flat

Spercheios The Spercheios (, ''Sperkheiós''), also known as the Spercheus from its Latin name, is a river in Phthiotis in central Greece. It is long, and its drainage area is . It was worshipped as a god in the ancient Greek religion and appears in some c ...

valley. The municipal unit of Gorgopotamos borders Lamia to the north and

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 Var ...

to the southwest.

Subdivisions

The municipal unit Gorgopotamos is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets): *Gorgopotamos * Damasta ( Ano Damasta, Kato Damasta, Chalvantzaiika) *Delfino *

Dyo Vouna Dyo Vouna ( el, Δύο Βουνά, meaning "two mountains") is a village on Mount Oeta in Phthiotis, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Lamia, and of the municipal unit of Gorgopotamos. Population was ...

* Eleftherochori * Irakleia *

Koumaritsi Koumaritsi ( el, Κουμαρίτσι) is a village on Mount Oeta in Phthiotis, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mé ...

* Moschochori * Neo Krikello * Oiti (Oiti, Skamnos) * Vardates (Ano Vardates) The village Gorgopotamos grew around an acetylene plant that operated between 1907 and 1945. The village of Eleftherochori is situated at 800 m above sea level on the slope of

Kallidromo Kallidromo ( el, Καλλίδρομο) is a mountain in southeastern Phthiotis and northeastern Phocis, in Central Greece. Its maximum elevation is 1,399 m. The Kallidromo lies south of the Malian Gulf, east of Mount Oeta and north of the Cephiss ...

. The village of Damasta features the natural spring known as Psoroneri.

Population

History

The Gorgopotamos bridge, built in 1905, put the Gorgopotamos village on the map for the strategic purpose the bridge played during World War II. The Engineer who originally designed and built the infamous Gorgopotamos bridge was Agostino Tacconi, later Αυγουστίνος Τακωνης (Takonis) who migrated from Palermo Italy to Greece to supply Greece with his Engineering skills. At the time Greece was recruiting from other nations to fill a significant skills shortage. The name of Gorgopotamos became famous during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, when 150

Greek 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 ...

partisans, following plans drawn by E. C. W. "Eddie" Myers and assisted by a group of British SOE officers, which included C.M. Woodhouse, blew up the railroad bridge over the Gorgopotamos river on November 25, 1942 as part of

Operation Harling Operation Harling, also known as the Battle of Gorgopotamos ( el, Μάχη του Γοργοποτάμου) in Greece, was a World War II mission by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), in cooperation with the Greek Resistance groups ...

and cut off the enemy-controlled route between

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

and

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. The blast ruined two of the six piers of the bridge. In an act of reprisals, the German occupation forces executed 16 Greek locals. The area around the bridge has been designated a national monument.Village history, in Greek
/ref> After World War II and the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος}, ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom and ...

, the bridge of Gorgopotamos was partially rebuilt, the piers being replaced with steel pylons.

Transport

The community is served by Gorgopotamos railway station, with Regional services to

Leianokladi Leianokladi ( el, Λειανοκλάδι) is a village and a former municipality in Phthiotis, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea ...

and

References

External links

Gorgopotamos VillageOfficial WebsiteGorgopotamos at the GTP Travel Pages
{{Lamia div Populated places in Phthiotis Mount Oeta