Olympos () is a village and a former self-governing

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

on the island of

Karpathos Karpathos (, ), also Carpathos, is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller Saria Island it forms the municipality of Karpathos, which is part of the regional unit ...

, in the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; , ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger and 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. This island group generally define ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

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

, of which it is a municipal unit. It is located in the northern part of the island. The total land area of the community is 104.876 km².

History

In antiquity in this place there was the Doric city Vrykous or Vrycous. Vrykous was one of the three ancient cities of

. It was located near the village Avlona. Today a small part of the city and the walls are preserved as well as some ruins from graves and three old Christian churches. The city of Vrykous was kept until the 7th or 8th century. Then the residents sought refuge in more mountainous areas on account of

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...

pirates. The refugees from Vrykous founded Olympos possibly in those years. Olympos was named after the mountain where it is built. The name of the village is feminine (Η Όλυμπος/I Olympos) contrary to the name of the mountain that is masculine (Ό Όλυμπος/O Olympos). The name Elympos (Έλυμπος) is used, mainly by local villagers. The villagers of Olympos kept the local dialect and the traditional costume due to the isolation of this place from the rest of Karpathos. The traditional style of the village attracts many tourists nowadays.

Historical population

Notable people

* Yannis Philippakis, frontman of the British indie band

Foals A foal is an equine up to one year old; this term is used mainly for horses, but can be used for donkeys. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, and are used until the horse is three or four. When the foal is ...

Photo gallery

File:Olymposvillage.jpeg, Closer view of the village File:Olymbos, Karpathos.JPG, Houses File:Olympos Balcony.jpeg, Balcony with view to the ocean File:Kirche in Olymbos.JPG, Local church File:ΓΙΟΡΤΗ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΝΑΓΙΑΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΟΛΥΜΠΟ (3).jpg, Local women dressed for a festival of

Mary, mother of Jesus Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

File:Diafani, Karpathos, GRE.jpg, Diafani village, seaport of Olympos traditional village

References

External links

Map showing community of Olympus on Karpathos Island and Saria Island
Populated places in Karpathos-Kasos Karpathos {{SouthAegean-geo-stub