Tsimandria ( el, Τσιμάνδρια) is a village and a community in the southwestern part 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 ...
, a
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 in the northern part of the
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...
. It is part of the municipal unit of
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 ...
. It is 1.5 km south of
Portianou, 2 km east of
Kontias, 4 km southwest of Nea Koutali and 10 km east of
Myrina. The eastern half of the
Fakos peninsula and the islets Kastria and Kompi are part of the community. In 2011 its population was 259.
Population
History
From the late
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
period, there has been a monastery in the area of Tsimandria, known as "Pteris" or "Fteri". Since the 14th century it was a dependency of the
Monastery of Saint John the Theologian
The Monastery of Saint John the Theologian (also called Monastery of Saint John the Divine) is a Greek Orthodox monastery founded in 1088 in Chora on the island of Patmos. It is named after St. John of Patmos, the author of the Christian Book o ...
on
Patmos
Patmos ( el, Πάτμος, ) is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the location where John of Patmos received the visions found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written.
One of the northern ...
. The fate of the monastery after the Ottoman conquest is not precisely known: on the 1785 map by
Choiseul-Gouffier a monastery was marked, but
Conze only found ruins in 1858. Two chapels, of the Taxiarches (i.e. the archangels
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ ...
and
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
) and of Saint John the Theologian, remain.
The village was first mentioned in 1569 as "Semandra". Other older versions of the name are "Smandria" and "Tzimandra". The village is built in a protected location behind the Filonikos hill. In 1856, it had 122 men who paid 1,909
piastres
The piastre or piaster () is any of a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for "thin metal plate". The name was applied to Spanish and Hispanic American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Levant ...
to escape conscription. It recorded 73 families in 1863 which rose slowly to 80 in 1874. The village had 96 houses in 1874. It was part of the municipality of
Kontias. The village had a representative in the island council. Apart from rural occupations, there were also sailors.
On 8 October 1812, it was the first village in Lemnos that was liberated by the
Greek Army
The Hellenic Army ( el, Ελληνικός Στρατός, Ellinikós Stratós, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term ''Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the ...
that landed on the nearby coast of Vourlidia. In 1915 it hosted many soldiers from the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and its colonies that participated in the failed
Gallipoli Campaign, and from 1918 until 1921 Russian refugees, both soldiers of
Wrangel's army and citizens.
In 1918, Tsimandria became a community. Between the two World Wars, the village experienced growth. It had 720 inhabitants and 120 houses. The school was extended, and a covered fountain was built in 1935 by the square. The cultivation of cotton was started, and a cultural society that promotes traditional music, songs and dances of Lemnos. The last living link with the past is the lyre player Thanasis Kotsinadellis. As the rest of Lemnos, Tsimandria lost a large part of the population due to emigration. From 700 inhabitants in 1951, it declined to 259 in 2011.
Diapori
The small port Diapori is situated at the west side of the sandy isthmus that connects the Fakos peninsula with the rest of Lemnos. It is 2 km south of Tsimandria. There are a few small shipyards and taverns.
See also
*
List of settlements in the Lemnos regional unit
This is a list of settlements in Lemnos regional unit in Greece:
* Agios Dimitrios
* Agios Efstratios
* Angariones
* Atsiki
* Dafni
* Fisini
* Kalliopi
* Kallithea
* Kaminia
* Karpasi
* Kaspakas
* Katalakko
* Kontias
* Kontopouli
* Ko ...
External links
Tsimandria at the GTP Travel Pages
References
*Tourptsoglou-Stefanidou Vassiliki, ''Voyages and Geographical Sources From Lemnos Island (15th-20th Centuries)'' (''Ταξιδιωτικά και γεωγραφικά κείμενα για τη νήσο Λήμνο 15ος-20ος αιώνας'')= ''Taxidiotika ke geografika kimena yia ti niso Limno (15os-20os eonas)''
*''Lemnos and its villages'' by Th. Belitsos 1994.
*
Angelis Mihelis ''Tsimandria'', Limnos newspaper, November 4, 1934
*''Lemnos/Limnos Province CD Rom'' (''Cdrom Επαρχείου Λήμνου'' = ''CD Rom Eparcheiou Limnou''): ''Lovable Lemnos''
{{Nea Koutali
Populated places in Lemnos