Tyrnavos () is a municipality in the Larissa regional unit, of the

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

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 ...

. It is the second-largest town of the Larissa regional unit, after

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

. The town is near the mountains and the

Thessalian Plain The Thessalian plain () is the dominant geographical feature of the Greek region of Thessaly. The plain is formed by the Pineios River and its tributaries and is surrounded by mountains: the Pindus mountain range to the west, which separates The ...

. The river

Titarisios The Titarisios (, formerly Ξεριάς - ''Xerias'') is a river in Thessaly, Greece. It is a major tributary of the Pineios. The river begins at the western slopes of Mount Olympus and flows southwest, then south. It leaves the mountains near the ...

, a tributary of the Pineios, flows through the town. Tyrnavos is bypassed by the Greek National Road 3 (Larissa – Elassona – Kozani –

Niki __NOTOC__ Niki may refer to: People * Niki (given name) * Niki (singer) * Ni-Ki, member of the South Korean boy band Enhypen. Places * Niki, Hokkaido, a town in Japan * Niki, Florina, a village in Greece Other uses * Niki (airline), former ...

). Tyrnavos is located south-southwest of

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

and

Katerini Katerini (, ''Kateríni'', ) is a city and municipality in northern Greece, the capital city of Regional Unit of Piera in Central Macedonia, Greece. It lies on the Pierian plain, between Mount Olympus and the Thermaikos Gulf, at an altitude ...

, northwest of

, east-northeast of

Trikala Trikala () is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala (regional unit), Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios (Thessaly), Pineios. According to the Greek Natio ...

and south-southeast of

Elassona Elassona (; Katharevousa: ) is a town and a municipality in the Larissa regional unit in Greece. During antiquity Elassona was called Oloosson (Ὀλοοσσών) and was a town of the Perrhaebi tribe. It is situated at the foot of Mount Olympus ...

and

Kozani Kozani (, ) is a town in northern Greece, capital of Kozani (regional unit), Kozani regional unit and of Western Macedonia. It is located in the western part of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, in the northern part of the Aliakmonas, Aliakmonas riv ...

. Here live an important community of

Aromanians The Aromanians () are an Ethnic groups in Europe, ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian language, Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgari ...

(

Vlachs Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula ...

History

Tyrnavos was built by the

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

as a pastoral settlement with huts in the 7th or 8th century AD. Its name is the Greek spelling of the Slavic name '' Trnovo'', a common place name throughout the Balkans meaning "place of thorns".''Tirnavos''
Prefecture of Larissa In 1423 the Turkish general Turahan Bey conquered

. Turahan founded Tyrnavos, gathering the local inhabitants and settling them in the new town, which he adorned with several buildings and which he granted extensive privileges. In 1770 there were 16 churches and 6 mosques in the town. Following the

Convention of Constantinople The Convention of Constantinople is a treaty concerning the use of the Suez Canal in Egypt. It was signed on 29 October 1888 by the United Kingdom, the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Russian Empire and ...

in 1881, Greece annexed Tyrnavos along with the rest of Thessaly. The

Turkish bath A hammam (), also often called a Turkish bath by Westerners, is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited from the model ...

is the only Ottoman building to have been preserved, as well as some other preservable buildings of the town.''Tirnavos''
Larissa prefecture On march 3, 2021, a 6,3 earthquake struck the region of Thessaly between the towns of Elassona and Tyrnavos. At least a hundred homes and other buildings in the area, including churches, were damaged. A disabled man was rescued with serious head injuries after being trapped in his house in the Mesochori village and 10 other people were slightly injured.

Carnival and the "bourani"

The city holds a famous annual carnival, which has its roots in antiquity. It is at least 100 years old. The first written records about its celebration date from 1898. In the early 20th century, the carnival of Tirnavos has been the target of bitter criticism and successive attacks by the governments of that time that regarded it as an offence against the moral standards of people. However, the prohibition of the carnival didn't intimidate the inhabitants of Tirnavos that celebrated it even secretly. After the war, disguised people are incorporated into the carnival chariots. However, the dictatorship prohibited it once more and its celebration was interrupted until 1980 when the custom was revised. In recent years, the carnival of Tirnavos is renowned as the biggest and best carnival in Central Greece. The carnival is celebrated during about a month, but the festivities culminate on the last Sunday of carnival with the big Parade of chariots, with the participation of thousands people.''The Carnival of Tirnavos''
Larissa prefecture The custom of "Burani" takes place on the day of ( Clean Monday), the first days of

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

.''The Annual Phallus Festival in Greece''
Der Spiegel, English edition, Retrieved on the 15-12-08 This customs have made Tirnavos famous. Shrove Monday is a day of merry moral freedom or laxity of morals during which the rules of decent behavior are temporarily violated. The use of sexual and love symbols are combined with the traditional folk manifestations. Strictly speaking, the "bourani" is a folk fare but in essence, it is a phallus festival that symbolizes the reproduction and fertility. First, the inhabitants of the town go to the country church of Prophet Elijah in a free wide area, in the north of the town. Each group spread a table with various dishes on the ground and a big flagon of wine or "ouzo" or "tsipouro" with water. At the same time, they lit a fire on which they prepared the "Bourani", a spinach soup. After the "Bourani" had been served to the "initiates", people started dancing, singing, joking and teasing each other using obscene language. Everyone who passes by must stop and stir the soup with a long wooden ladle of a particular shape, take a sip of soup straight from the ladle and then drink a shot of tsipouro from a ceramic phallic-shaped tumbler. Next to the cauldron, there is a rocking throne in the shape of a phallus, which attracts flocks of laughing festivalgoers.''Phallic Tyrnavos''
Bulgaria's English Monthly, Issue 53–54, February–March 2011 A lot of men that participated in this ritual held phalluses as scepters in their hands. The phalluses were made of wood or clay or even of bread and constituted the most important ceremonial symbol. In the late seventies, women started taking an active part in the entire ritual especially after the creation of the "Bourani Society" in 1979. This pagan fertility festival in honour of the god

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

marks the beginning of the

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

fasting period before

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

. Due to the intense pagan roots of the festival and its irreverence, the Greek Orthodox Church does not approve of the event.

Municipality

The municipality Tyrnavos was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 2 former municipalities, that became municipal units: * Ampelonas * Tyrnavos

Subdivisions

The municipal unit of Tyrnavos is divided into the following communities (constituent settlements in brackets): *

Argyropouli Argyropouli (, , ) is an Aromanian ( Vlach) village and a 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 ...

(Argyropouli, Ano Argyropouleio, Votanochori) * Damasi (Damasi, Damasouli) * Dendra Tyrnavou (Dendra, Agia Sofia, Platanoulia) * Tyrnavos (Tyrnavos, Kritiri, Lygaria, Perichora)

Province

The province of Tyrnavos () was one of the

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

of the Larissa Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipality Tyrnavos and the municipal units Giannouli,

Gonnoi Gonnoi (, before 1927: Δερελί - ''Dereli'') is a former municipality in the Larissa regional unit, Thessaly, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tempi, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipa ...

and

Kato Olympos Kato Olympos (, ) is a municipal unit in the Tempi (municipality), Tempi Municipalities and communities of Greece, municipality, within the Regional units of Greece, regional unit of Larissa (regional unit), Larissa, in the historical and Administ ...

. It was abolished in 2006.

Population

Geography

The municipality is made up of mountains covering the northern portion as well as grasslands. Farmlands dominate the southern portion in which is part of the

and the

valley. Tyrnavos is a major wine producing center. The municipality Tyrnavos has an area of 525.323 km², the municipal unit Tyrnavos has an area of 370.564 km², and the community Tyrnavos has an area of 79.109 km².

Notable people

* Thanassis Papakonstantinou (1959) singer and songwriter * Daniel, protopsaltis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (18th century)

References

External links

Official website

Tyrnavos on Visit Greece the official tourism web site for Greece, run by the Greek National Tourism Organisation

Reunion of Vlachs in Tyrnavos {{Authority control Tyrnavos, Populated places established in the 15th century Municipalities of Thessaly Provinces of Greece Aromanian settlements in Greece Populated places in Larissa (regional unit)