Dimitsana () is a mountain village and a former municipality in Arcadia,

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it has been part of the municipality

Gortynia Gortynia () is a municipality in the Arcadia regional unit, Peloponnese, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Dimitsana. The municipality has an area of 1,050.882 km2. Municipality The municipality Gortynia was formed at the 20 ...

, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 110.759 km². Dimitsana is built on the ruins of the ancient town Teuthis. It has been registered as a traditional settlement. Dimitsana is built on a mountain slope at an elevation of 950 meters. From its southern side a marvelous view of the

Megalopolis A megalopolis () or a supercity, also called a megaregion, is a group of metropolitan areas which are perceived as a continuous urban area through common systems of transport, economy, resources, ecology, and so on. They are integrated enough ...

plain and

Taygetus The Taygetus, Taugetus, Taygetos or Taÿgetus () is a mountain range on the Peloponnese peninsula in Southern Greece. The highest mountain of the range is Mount Taygetus, also known as "Profitis Ilias", or "Prophet Elias" (Elijah). The name is o ...

is provided. Dimitsana is located 53 km east of Pyrgos, 31 km northwest of Tripoli, 23 km northwest of

Megalopoli Megalopoli () is a town in the southwestern part of the regional unit of Arcadia, southern Greece. It is located in the same site as ancient Megalopolis ( literally ''large/great city''). When it was founded in 371 BCE, it was the first large urba ...

and 17 km northeast of Andritsaina. The village has a school, a historical library, several churches, a post office, an open-air water-power museum, an open amphitheater, hotels and a square.

History

At the site of present-day Dimitsana there was, in ancient times, the ancient Arcadian town Teuthis, which had participated in the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

and the colonization of

. In 963 Philosophou Monastery was founded 2,5 km from Dimitsana. The name of the town is first recorded in 967 in a

Patriarchate Patriarchate (, ; , ''patriarcheîon'') is an ecclesiological term in Christianity, referring to the office and jurisdiction of a patriarch. According to Christian tradition, three patriarchates—Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria—were establi ...

's document related to Philosophou Monastery. The first gunpowder mills of the town were built under the guise of home industry in the middle of the 18th century by Bishop Ananias Lakedaimonias, who paved a revolt against the Turks. In 1764 the movement was revealed and Ananias and his partners were killed. In the same year Agapios, a wise monk, built a library, where he moved the books of the monastery. The library was growing constantly until 1821, as the Patriarchate offered new books and there was a seminary, known as ''Φροντιστήριο Ελληνικών Γραμμάτων'' (Tuition Centre of Greek Literature). A lot of bishops and scholars graduated from it, among them Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople and Germanos III of Old Patras, whose houses have survived in the town. After the Orlov events, some inhabitants of Dimitsana bearing the name "Tasoulis" () migrated to Minor Asia fleeing the Albanian ravaging of

. Upon arrival in Koldere, in 1777, near Magnesia ( ad Sipylum), they changed their name "Tasopoulos" ().H καταγωγή των Κολτεριωτών της Σμύρνης – Του Μωυσιάδη Παναγιώτη
e-ptolemeos.gr Ιn the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

the Dimitsana gunpowder mills played an important role, but during the war a large part of its library's books were destroyed when Greek warriors used their paper in the 14 gunpowder mills that worked day and night, supplying them with gunpowder. For this reason Dimitsana has been called "the Nation's powder keg". In 1960 Dimitsana's population was about 2,000, but a lot of people have since then emigrated to the United States, Australia and elsewhere.

Sights

Dimitsana is a stone-built village with remarkable mansions, most of which are now restored. It is a typical sample of

's architecture and it is registered as a traditional one. The statue of Patriarch Gregory V dominates in the central square and also the family houses of both him and Germanos III of Old Patras can be seen. Today, Dimitsana's Library contains about 35,000 books, manuscripts and documents. In Dimitsana's Museum, housed in the Library, there are collections of weaving, looms and handicrafts and an archaeological one. The Elementary School was built from 1898 to 1910, by a donation of Andreas Syngros, and is a characteristic sample of that period. It operated as a girls' school until 1930 and later as a county court. Not far from the village is the Open-air Water Power Museum (1997), created by restoring abandoned pre-industrial facilities, based on Water Power. It includes a flour mill, a traditional cauldron, a tannery, a tanner's house and a gunpowder mill. Dimitsana01

In the surroundings important sights include the Old and the New Philosophou Monastery and Prodromou Monastery, both located inside Loussios's gorge.

Subdivisions

The municipal unit Dimitsana is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets): *Dimitsana (Dimitsana, Karkalou, Moni Aimyalon i Filosofou, Palaiochori) * Melissopetra * Panagia * Rados * Rizospilia (Rizospilia, Kato Rizospilia) *

Zatouna Zatouna () is a mountain village and a community in the municipal unit of Dimitsana, western Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. It is situated on a mountain slope at about 1000 m elevation, west of the river Lousios. The community includes the nearby ...

(Zatouna, Vlongos, Markos) * Zigovisti

Population

Notable people

* Germanos, metropolitan bishop of Patras (1771–1826) *

Gregory V Gregory may refer to: People and fictional characters * Gregory (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gregory (surname), a surname * Gregory (The Walking Dead), fictional character from the walki ...

(1746–1821), Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople * Theophanes III (1570-1644),

Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem The Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem or Eastern Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, officially patriarch of Jerusalem (; ; ), is the head bishop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, ranking fourth of nine patriarchs in the Easte ...

* Tassos Gritsopoulos, historian * Archbishop Ieremias of Gortyna

Gallery

File:Dimitsana en juillet 2009 - 6.jpg, House in Dimitsana File:Restored stone built house at Dimitsana.JPG, Old house restored File:Dimitsana2.jpg, The statue of

in Dimitsana File:Orthodox church in Dimitsana, Greece - panoramio.jpg, Orthodox church File:Dimitsana panorama, Greece - panoramio.jpg, Panoramic view

References

External links

Municipality of Dimitsana
(official site, pages in Greek and in English)

(in Greek)
Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation
open air water-power museum {{Authority control Populated places in Arcadia, Peloponnese Gortynia