Livadochori ( el, Λιβαδοχώρι) is a village and a community in the

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 ...

island of

Lemnos Lemnos or Limnos ( el, Λήμνος; grc, Λῆμνος) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean region. The p ...

, part of the municipal unit

Nea Koutali Nea Koutali ( el, Νέα Κούταλη) is a municipal unit on the island of Lemnos, North Aegean, Greece. Located in the south central portion of the island with a land area of , it accounts for about 15.9% of the island's area, making it the sma ...

. In 2011 its population was 237 for the village, and 373 for the community, which includes the village Poliochni. It is situated in the central part of the island, 1 km northwest of

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 ...

, 2 km north of Nea Koutali, 7 km northwest of

Moudros Moudros ( el, Μούδρος) is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lemnos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lemnos, of which it is a municipal unit. It covers the entire eas ...

and 12 km northeast of Myrina. The

Lemnos International Airport Lemnos International Airport "Hephaestus" is an airport on Lemnos Island, Greece. The airport is located 18 km away from the city of Myrina and began operation in 1959. This Airport, along with the whole island of Lemnos, was also featured ...

is 3 km east.

Population

History

Under the name Livadochorion or Livatochorion it was first mentioned in 1355 in a document of the

Philotheou monastery Philotheou or Filotheou Monastery ( el, Μονή Φιλοθέου) is an Eastern Orthodox monastery at the monastic state of Mount Athos in Greece. It stands on the north-eastern side of the peninsula. History It was founded by the Blessed ...

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...

. Since then it has repeatedly been mentioned under the same name in maps (including Buondelmonti's map in 1418) and books, suggesting continuous existence of the village. During the years under Ottoman rule, it was one of the main villages on the island. It was populated by Greeks and agas who supervised their agricultural estates. In 1548, when Belon visited the island, the village was fortified and the seat of the

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...

of the island. The revolutionary leaders Pantelis Marinakis and Apostolis Limnios came from the village, and took part in the battles in

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

and Niokastro in 1824 and 1825 under

Vasos Mavrovouniotis Vasos Mavrovouniotis ( el, Βάσος Μαυροβουνιώτης, literally "''Vasos the Montenegrin''"; 1797 – 9 June 1847), born as Vaso Brajević ( Serbian: Васо Брајевић), was a Serbian general, who played a significant role i ...

. When the German archaeologist Conze visited the village in 1858, it was still a large village that was partly ruined. At that time Greek shipowners and immigrants began to buy the Ottoman estates and the Ottoman landowners began to settle in the capital Kastro. According to the communal archives from 1854, the village had 62 enlisted men that paid 989 piastres to avoid conscription. It had 45 Christian families in 1863 and 55 in 1874, it had 59 houses in the same year. The village was part of the municipality (koli) of

Kontias Kontias ( el, Κοντιάς) is a village on the Greek island of Lemnos, North Aegean. It is the seat of the municipal unit Nea Koutali. In 2011 its population was 572. Kontias is situated in the southwestern part of the island, 2 km west of Tsi ...

and its inhabitantas sent a representative to the Lemnos provincial assembly. A school was founded by Doukas Palaiologos in nearby Sarpi in 1868. In 1894 a school was established in Livadochori. In 1910 a dedicated school building was built by Egyptian-Greeks Sarantis and Palaiologos from Kornos and the school was community-run. It ran up to the 1980s and closed due to a student population decline. After Livadochori and the island joined the rest of Greece as a result of the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

, it became an independent community in 1918, in which it was united for some years with the settlements of Strati (repealed in 1928) and Kourouni (since 1940 a part of the community of Lera). In the years between the two World Wars, the village saw a small growth. It built an aqueduct and a fountain in 1922, donated for 200,000 drachmas by the brothers Nikolaos and Komninos Halamandaris. It had 516 inhabitantas in 1928, among whom were many refugees from Minor Asia, employed mainly in the agriculture and animal husbandry. In its fields, it produced 480,000 tons of wheat and 30,000 tons of cotton. It had a flour mill and a cotton factory. After the Second World War, the village declined dramatically due to emigration. It had 604 inhabitants in 1951, it fell to 266 in 1981 (of which 63 were inhabitants of neighboring Poliochni). Together with Poliochni, Livadochori had 373 inhabitants in 2011. In 1989, the Livadochori High school was opened which serves students from central Lemnos.

Poliochni

Poliochni is a village on a low hill northeast of Livadochori. It takes its name from this hill, and is not related to the archaeological site

Poliochne Poliochne, often cited under its modern name Poliochni ( el, Πολιόχνη), was an ancient settlement on the east coast of the island of Lemnos. It was settled in the Late Chalcolithic and earliest Aegean Bronze Age and is believed to be one ...

in eastern Lemnos. In the Middle Ages, a village called ''Agiopavlitiko'' was situated on the site of present Poliochni. In a document dated 1796, this village was mentioned under the name ''Ligkouli'' or ''Likoli''. By then, it was already abandoned and ruined. In 1881 the place was mentioned as ''Polichni'', which was changed into ''Poliochni'' after the discovery of ancient Poliochne near Kaminia. It was settled again in the early 20th century, and since in 1981 it is an official settlement of the community Livadochori.

Sources

*''Tourptsoglou-Stefanidou Vasiliki, ''Voyages and Geographical Sources From Lemnos Island (15th-20th Centuries)'' (Ταξιδιωτικά και γεωγραφικά κείμενα για τη νήσο Λήμνο (15ος-20ος αιώνας)) * Belitsos, Theodoros, ''Lemnos and its villages'', 1994. *''Lemnos Province CD ROM'' (''Cdrom Επαρχείου Λήμνου''): ''Lovable Lemnos'' *Belitsos, Theodoros: ''Historic route in Lemnos: Livadochori'',

Lemnos Newspapers Lemnos or Limnos ( el, Λήμνος; grc, Λῆμνος) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean region. The p ...

, p 531 (June 10, 2008).

External links

Livadochori at the GTP Travel Pages

References