Gardiki (

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

: Γαρδίκη) is a 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 identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

in the Trikala regional unit of Greece's

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. It is part of the municipal unit of Aithikes. The 2021 census recorded 134 residents in the community.

Administrative division

The community of Gardiki comprises two settlements: *Gardiki (population 58, 2011 census) *Palaiochori (population 85, 2011 census)

History

The village occupies the site of the ancient town of Pellinaeum or Pelinna. The ancient town survived until the early

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

period, but disappears thereafter only to reappear under the name of Gardiki in the 11th century. The Byzantine settlement was built on the ruins of the ancient citadel, with the foundations of the ancient wall providing the base of the later medieval fortifications. A ruined three-aisled

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

dedicated to St. Paraskevi from the 14th century also survives. In the late medieval and Ottoman periods, the area was settled by Aromanian (

Vlach 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) ...

) Greeks, who remain the main group of the modern village.

Episcopal see

The town is attested as an episcopal see of the

Greek Church Greek Church may refer to *Eastern Orthodox Church *Church of Greece *Greek Orthodox Church *Greek Catholic Church Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches that ...

since the 11th century as a

suffragan see A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, ...

of the

Metropolis of Larissa The Metropolis of Larissa and Tyrnavos () is a Greek Orthodox metropolitan see in Thessaly, Greece. History Christianity penetrated early to Larissa, though its first bishop is recorded only in 325 at the Council of Nicaea. Saint Achillius of L ...

. It was often combined with the nearby see of Peristera (modern Taxiarches). Manuscript lists give the names of later Greek Orthodox bishops: Metrophanes, degraded in 1623; Gregorius or Cyrillus, 1623; Sophronius, 1646-1649; Gregorius, about 1700; Meletius, 1743; Paisius, 18th century; Gregorius, about 1852. When Thessaly was united with Greece (1881), the Greek Orthodox eparchy had been vacant since 1875 and was suppressed in 1899 through being absorbed into the

Metropolis of Phthiotis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

.Sophrone Pétridès, "Cardica"
in ''

Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

'' (New York 1908)

Administrative division

History

Episcopal see

See also

References

External links