Kalabaka ( el, Καλαμπάκα, ''Kalabáka'', alternative transliterations are ''Kalambaka'' and ''Kalampaka'') is a town and seat of the municipality of

Meteora The Meteora (; el, Μετέωρα, ) is a rock formation in central Greece hosting one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries, second in importance only to Mount Athos.Sofianos, D.Z.: "Metéora" ...

in the

Trikala Trikala ( el, Τρίκαλα; rup, Trikolj) is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios. According to the Greek National Stati ...

regional unit, part of

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

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 wi ...

. The population was 12,000 at the 2011 census, of which 8,330 in the town proper. The

monasteries are located near the town. Kalabaka is the northwestern terminal of the old

Thessaly Railways Thessaly Railways ( el, Σιδηρόδρομοι Θεσσαλίας) was a railway company in Greece, which owned and operated the metre gauge railway network of Thessaly and Pelion railway from 1884 to 1955, when the company was absorbed by the ...

, now part of OSE.

History

A Greek inscription on the wall of one of the town's oldest churches (Saint John the Baptist) testifies to the existence of an ancient Greek settlement under the name Aiginion. Meteora with view over Kastraki

In the 10th century AD, it was known as Stagoi (Σταγοί), a

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 ...

fortress and bishopric (the name is still in use for the town by the Greek Orthodox Church). Of its medieval monuments, only the cathedral, the Church of the Dormition, survives. It was a late 11th- or early 12th-century building, built on the remains of an earlier, late antique church. Relics of an ancient Greek temple – probably of god Apollo – have been incorporated in the wall of the town's oldest and most renowned church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Stagoi is first mentioned in ''Diatyposis'' written by the Byzantine Emperor

Leo VI the Wise Leo VI, called the Wise ( gr, Λέων ὁ Σοφός, Léōn ho Sophós, 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well ...

(886-912). In 1163 there was a reference to the castle of Stagoi. In 1204 Stagoi fell under the

Despotate of Epirus The Despotate of Epirus ( gkm, Δεσποτᾶτον τῆς Ἠπείρου) was one of the Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire established in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 by a branch of the Angelos dynasty. It clai ...

. At the end of the 13th century they fell under the Duchy of Neopatria. In 1334, they were taken over once more by the Despot of Epirus,

John II Orsini John II Orsini, also John Komnenos Doukas or Comnenus Ducas ( Greek: Ἰωάννης Κομνηνός Δούκας, ''Iōannēs Komnēnos Doukas'', Italian: Giovanni II Orsini), was count palatine of Cephalonia from 1323 to 1324 and Despot of E ...

, and shortly thereafter they came once more under the control of the Byzantine Empire. In 1348, they were conquered by the Serbs of

Stephen Dushan Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...

. They reached their peak under the rule of his brother, King Simeon Uroš. When the Ottomans conquered Thessaly, Kalabaka was placed under the administrative rule of the Pasha of Larisa and later on of the Sanjak of Trikala. It was named "Kalabaka" six or seven centuries ago. It is of Turkish origin and means "powerful fortress". It has been

Anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influenc ...

variously as Kalampaka, Kalambaka or Kalabaki.

Bishopric history

From the beginning of the 10th century, Stagoi was referred to as an

episcopal see An episcopal see is, in a practical use of the phrase, the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, mak ...

, thereby enjoying privileges and donations from the

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as ...

s throughout the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. It owned significant stretches of land and had dependent farmers in neighboring settlements. Besides the fields of northwest

, its territory included an extensive mountainous zone in Asia and central Pindos. The

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

of Stagoi, a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

of the

Metropolis of Larissa The Metropolis of Larissa and Tyrnavos ( el, Ιερά Μητρόπολις Λαρίσης και Τυρνάβου) is a Greek Orthodox metropolitan see in Thessaly, Greece. History Christianity penetrated early to Larissa, though its first bishop ...

, was maintained, with some small intermissions, up to 1900 when it was merged with the bishopric of Tricca to form the Metropolis of Tricca and Stagoi with the town of Trikala as its seat. It was reestablished in 1991, and has been operating ever since as the Metropolis of "Stagoi and Meteora" with its seat in the town of Kalabaka.

Province

The province of Kalabaka ( el, Επαρχία Καλαμπάκας) was one of the

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

of the Trikala Prefecture. It had the same territory as the present municipality of Meteora. It was abolished in 2006.

Transport

The city is served by Kalambaka station on the Palaiofarsalos-Kalambaka line.

Geography and demographics

The town is situated at the foot of the

peaks. It is inhabited by an important native-indigenous community of

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 ...

Vlachs "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easte ...

Government

Kalampaka is a municipal unit of the municipality of

. The municipal unit of Kalampaka has an area of 277.087 km². The municipal unit (which corresponds with the municipality as it existed between 1997 and 2010) consists of the following communities (constituent settlements in brackets): * Avra (Avra, Nea Zoi) * Diava (Diava, Koromilia) *Kalabaka (Kalabaka, Agia Paraskevi, Vitoumas) * Kastraki * Krya Vrysi (Krya Vrysi, Trifyllia) * Megali Kerasea (Megali Kerasea, Mourgkani) * Orthovouni * Sarakina *

Vlachava Vlachava ( el, Βλαχάβα) is a village in Kalabaka municipality, Thessaly, Greece. It is located on a hill overlooking Kalambaka and the Meteora monastery complex. Geography The town is situated at 910 meters above sea level. A paved road co ...

Twin towns

Kalampaka has two twin towns: *

Schwabach Schwabach () is a German city of about 40,000 inhabitants near Nuremberg in the centre of the region of Franconia in the north of Bavaria. The city is an autonomous administrative district (''kreisfreie Stadt''). Schwabach is also the name of th ...

, Germany * Le Haillan, France

Recognition

Kalabaka was voted as one of the most beautiful places in Greece by the

Skai TV Skai TV ( Greek: ΣΚΑΪ) is a Greek free-to-air television network based in Piraeus. It is part of the Skai Group, one of the largest media groups in the country. It was relaunched in its present form on 1 April 2006 in the Athens metropol ...

show ''I LOVE GR''.

Notable people

Kostas Fortounis Konstantinos 'Kostas' Fortounis ( gr, Κωνσταντίνος 'Κώστας' Φορτούνης, ; born 16 October 1992) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or a winger for Super League club Olympiacos and ...

, professional footballer who was born in nearby Trikala but he and his family are from Kalabaka. * Christos Albanis, professional footballer who was born in the town. * Demoulas family, Greek-American Supermarket-business family whose founders, Athanasios and Efrosine Demoulas were born in Kalabaka.

References

Sources

*Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister, Stillwell, Richard, MacDonald, William L., McAlister, Marian Holland, Aiginion, in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. *A. Avramea, ''I Vyzantini Thessalia mechri tou 1204'' yzantine Thessaly up to 1204 doctoral dissertation, Athens 1974, EKPA-Vivliothiki Sofias N. Saripolou 27, Athens 1974, pp. 158–161. *V. Spanos, Istoria-Prosopographia tis BD. Thessalias to B' miso tou ID' aiona. istory-Portrait of NW Thessaly the 2nd half of the 14th c. Larisa 1995 *I. Vogiatzidis, ''To chronikon ton Meteoron'' he Chronicle of Meteora Yearbook of Society for Byzantine Studies 2 (1925), pp. 149–162. *D. Sofianos, ''Acta Stagorum, Ta yper tis Thessalikis episkopis Stagon palaia vyzantina eggrafa (ton eton 1163, 1336 kai 1393)'' cta Stagorum: the Byzantine documents for the Thessalic diocese of Stagai [from the years 1163, 1336 and 1393) Trikalina 13 (1993), pp. 7–67. *St. Aristarchis, "Ekthesis epi ton diagonismaton Thessalias kai Epirou", [Report on the examinations in Epirus and Thessaly] O en Konstantinoupolei Ellinikos Filologikos Syllogos 13-15 (1867), pp. 31–39 *L. Heuzey – H.Daumet, Mission arhéologique de Macédoine, Paris 1876, pp. 452–454, *L.Heuzey, Odoiporiko stin Tourkokratoumeni Thessalia to 1858 xcursion dans la Thessalie turque en 1858 transl. Ch. Dimitropoulos, publ. Afoi Kyriakidi, Thessaloniki 1991, pp. 152–157 *F. Dölger, Regesten der kaiserurkunden des oströmischen reiches von 565-1453,Verlag, München-Berlin 1960,pp. 159–160. *P.Sustal, Hellas und Thessalia, (TIB 1), ed Η. Hunger., Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bonn 1976, p. 262. *Ch. Astruc, Un document inédit de 1163 sur l' évêché thessalien, de Stagi, Paris.Suppl. Gr. 1371, BCH, vol. 83(1959),pp. 206–246

External links

Natural History Museum of Meteora and Mushroom Museum
, Kalambaka's Museum
Holy Metropolis of Stagon and Meteoron

Official site of the Metéora Monasteries

News from Kalampaka and the surrounding area

The Radio of Kalampaka
{{Authority control Provinces of Greece Cities in ancient Greece Aromanian settlements in Greece Populated places in Trikala (regional unit) Natura 2000 in Greece