Kamena Vourla ( el, Καμένα Βούρλα, lit=Burnt
Rushes, ) is a town and a 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 ...
. At the 2011
local government reform it became part of the municipality ''Molos-Agios Konstantinos'' (of which it became the seat),
which was renamed to ''Kamena Vourla'' in July 2018.
The population of the town proper was 2,796 at the 2011 census.
Geography
Kamena Vourla is located on the south coast of the
Malian Gulf
The Malian or Maliac Gulf ( el, Μαλιακός Κόλπος, Maliakós Kólpos) is a gulf in the western Aegean Sea. It forms part of the coastline of Greece's region of Phthiotis. The gulf stretches east to west to a distance of , depending on ...
, west of Cape Knimis, which separates the Malian Gulf from the
North Euboean Gulf. The
Knimis mountains rise just south of the town. It is crossed by
Motorway 1, which connects
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 ...
and
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 ...
.
The municipality Kamena Vourla comprises the municipal units Kamena Vourla,
Agios Konstantinos and
Molos. The municipal unit Kamena Vourla consists of the communities Kamena Vourla, Kainourgio and Regkinio.
[ The municipality has an area of 339.0 km2, the municipal unit Kamena Vourla (the pre-2011 municipality) has an area of 117.9 km2.]
Population
The population of the municipality Kamena Vourla was 12,090 in 2011, of which 4,728 in the municipal unit Kamena Vourla and 2,976 in the town proper.[
]
Springs and monastery
The famous springs became important around 1926 when the chemist Michail Pertesis discovered the exceptionally high radon
Radon is a chemical element with the symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colourless, odourless, tasteless noble gas. It occurs naturally in minute quantities as an intermediate step in the normal radioactive decay chains through ...
concentration in the water, which was thought of as a great value for people's health. Nearly ten years later (1930s), the first hotels started to develop. After World War II, Kamena Vourla was transformed into a tourist attraction.
Eight km away on the road heading uphill features the monastery known as Iera Moni Metamorfoseos tou Sotiros which was built in around the 11th century. Nearby the city a historic tomb is situated, a monument to the Battle of Thermopylae with a seal of Leonidas
Leonidas I (; grc-gre, Λεωνίδας; died 19 September 480 BC) was a List of kings of Sparta#Heraclids, king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, and the 17th of the List of kings of Sparta#Agiad dynasty, Agiad line, a dynasty which claimed d ...
, King of Sparta
For most of its history, the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta in the Peloponnese was ruled by kings. Sparta was unusual among the Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the Archaic age. It was even more unusual in that it had ...
, located not far from the mountain village Karya.
References
External links
Official website
kammenavourla.gr
Kamena Vourla portal & guide
kamena-vourla.gr
Kamena Vourla hot springs information, facilities, directions, near destinations
Municipalities of Central Greece
Populated places in Phthiotis
Spa towns in Greece
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