Akraifnio ( el, Ακραίφνιο), before 1933 known as Karditsa (),Name changes of settlements in Greece
/ref> is a village in

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, wikt:Βοιωτία, Βοιωτία; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is pa ...

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 wit ...

. It was the seat of the former municipality Akraifnia, which is a municipal unit of the municipality Orchomenos since the 2011 local government reform. Population 1,058 (2011). Akraifnio is situated on the western edge of the Ptoo mountains, close to where the river Cephissus flows into

Lake Yliki Lake Yliki ( el, Υλίκη ''Yliki'', Ancient Greek: Ὑλίκη ''Hylike'', Latinised as ''Hylica'') is a large natural lake of Boeotia, central Greece. Situated 8 km north of Thebes at 78 m elevation, it has been an important source of drinking ...

. It is 17 km northwest of Thebes. The A1 motorway (Athens-Thessaloniki) passes southwest of the village.

Population

History

Akraifnio was named after the ancient city Acraephia ( grc, Ἀκραιφία). Acraephia or Acraephnium (Ἀκραίφνιον) was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

city ''(

polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...

)'' on the eastern shore of

Lake Copais Lake Copais, also spelled Kopais or Kopaida ( grc, Κωπαΐς; ell, Κωπαΐδα), was a lake in the centre of Boeotia, Greece, west of Thebes. It was drained in the late 19th century. It is now flat dry land and is still known as Kopaida. ...

(drained in the late 19th century) and at the foot of the Ptoo mountains. It was believed to have been founded by the mythical Acraepheus. The ruins are a short distance south from the modern village. When Alexander razed Thebes those who were too weak or old to move to Attica settled at Acraephia. Near the town there was a sanctuary to Acraephian or Ptoan Apollo with an

oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The wor ...

. In the late Middle Ages, the site was occupied by the village of Karditsa. In the 13th–15th centuries, it was part of the Frankish

Duchy of Athens The Duchy of Athens (Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν, ''Doukaton Athinon''; Catalan: ''Ducat d'Atenes'') was one of the Crusader states set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade as part of th ...

, and in the first decades of the 14th century, it was the seat of the knight Antoine le Flamenc, reputed to be "the wisest man in the duchy", and his son, Jean. Antoine is buried in the Church of Saint George, which he built, and which carries an inscription commemorating his donation. The municipality Akraifnio, with its seat in the village Kokkino, was established in 1835. In 1912 it was split into the communities Topolia, Loukisia, Kokkino, Karditsa and Mouriki. The village and community Karditsa was renamed Akraifnio in 1933 after the ancient city. Akraifnio became part of the larger municipality Akraifnia in 1997.

Landmarks and points of interests

*Pelagia Monastery (at 560 m above sea level), oldest parts dating from the 12th century *Sarakinos Cave, located at the edge of the Kopaida plains. Archaeological excavations have resulted in findings dating from the

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

up to the

Middle Helladic Helladic chronology is a relative dating system used in archaeology and art history. It complements the Minoan chronology scheme devised by Sir Arthur Evans for the categorisation of Bronze Age artefacts from the Minoan civilization within a hi ...

Age.Ministry of Culture and Sports, Sarakinos Cave
/ref>

References

{{Orchomenos div Populated places in Boeotia