Erineos ( el, Ερινεός) is a former

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

Achaea Achaea () or Achaia (), sometimes transliterated from Greek as Akhaia (, ''Akhaïa'' ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Western Greece and is situated in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. T ...

West Greece Western Greece Region ( el, Περιφέρεια Δυτικής Ελλάδας, translit=Periféria Dhitikís Elládhas, ) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It comprises the western part of continental Greece and the north ...

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 ...

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality

Aigialeia Aigialeia ( el, Αιγιάλεια, ) is a municipality and a former province (επαρχία) in the eastern part of the Achaea regional unit, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Aigio. The municipality has an area of 723.063 km ...

, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 98.710 km². Its seat of administration was in the village of Kamares. Erineos stretches between the northeastern slopes of the

Panachaiko The Panachaiko ( el, Παναχαϊκό, "Panachaean"), also known as Vodias (Βοδιάς) mainly at the Middle Ages, is a mountain range in Achaea, Peloponnese, Greece. It spans about 20 km in length from north to south, and 15–20 k ...

mountain and the

Gulf of Corinth The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf ( el, Κορινθιακός Kόλπος, ''Korinthiakόs Kόlpos'', ) is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea, separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. It is bounded in the east by the Ist ...

. The river Foinikas (Phoenix) (or Salmenikos) flows through the municipality. The

Greek National Road 8A Greek National Road 8a ( el, Εθνική Οδός 8a, abbreviated as EO8a) was a toll road in the Attica, Peloponnese and West Greece regions. It connected Athens with the cities of Corinth and Patras. It was built in the 1960s as a replaceme ...

( Patras -

Aigio Aigio, also written as ''Aeghion, Aegion, Aegio, Egio'' ( el, Αίγιο, Aígio, ; la, Aegium), is a town and a former municipality in Achaea, West Greece, on the Peloponnese. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipali ...

Corinth Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part ...

) and the railway from Patras to Corinth run through the municipal unit. It is located about 10 km west of Aigio.

Subdivisions

The municipal unit Erineos is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets): *

Arravonitsa Arravonitsa ( el, Αρραβωνίτσα) is a village and a community in the municipal unit of Erineos, Achaea, Greece. It is located in a hilly area, 15 km west of Aigio. The community consists of the villages Arravonitsa and Synania. In 20 ...

(Arravonitsa, Synania) * Damakini (Damakini, Vounopyrgos) * Kamares (Kamares, Bouka, Pefka) * Neos Erineos * Salmeniko (Ano Salmeniko, Kato Salmeniko, Voteni, Neo Salmeniko) * Ziria (Ziria, Ano Ziria, Kyani Akti, Lampiri, Rodini, Sarkounas)

Historical population

History

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

, the area around Ziria was part of the

Achaean League The Achaean League (Greek: , ''Koinon ton Akhaion'' "League of Achaeans") was a Hellenistic-era confederation of Greek city states on the northern and central Peloponnese. The league was named after the region of Achaea in the northwestern Pelop ...

. Today's Lampiri was the port of the ancient town of Erineus, which was destroyed in 412 BC by Athenian and Corinthian generals. The English antiquarian and topographer

William Martin Leake William Martin Leake (14 January 17776 January 1860) was an English military man, topographer, diplomat, antiquarian, writer, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He served in the British military, spending much of his career in the Mediterran ...

travelled in the area in the first half of the 19th century. In his book "Peloponnesiaca: A Supplement to Travels in the Moréa" he mentions the village as the "vineyards of Lambíri" and the bay of Lambiri as "the only semblance of a harbor between

and

Psathopyrgos Psathopyrgos ( Greek: Ψαθόπυργος) is a tourist village and community in the municipal unit of Rio in the northern part of Achaea, Greece. Psathopyrgos is located on the Gulf of Corinth, south east of Cape Drepano, the northernmost point ...

." The famous French historian, explorer, and diplomat

François Pouqueville François Charles Hugues Laurent Pouqueville (; 4 November 1770 – 20 December 1838) was a French diplomat, writer, explorer, physician and historian, member of the Institut de France. First as the Turkish Sultan's hostage, then as Napoleon Bon ...

, who travelled through the area in 1816, mentions the "Port Erineus or "Lambir ta Ambélia" (ampelia means vineyards in Greek), and he also mentions the existence of a khan for travellers there. The ancient city of Rhypes was one of the cities of the

. It was razed by Emperor

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

. Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'', 7. 6. 1 and 7. 18. 7. In Kamares artefacts dating back to the

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

have been found. The

Salmeniko Castle The Salmeniko Castle ( el, Κάστρο του Σαλμενίκου, ''Kastro tou Salmenikou'') or Orgia or Oria Castle (Κάστρο Οργιάς/Ωριάς, cf. '' Kastro tis Orias'') was a castle at the foot of Panachaiko mountain, in the mode ...

was an important stronghold of the Byzantines against the Ottomans. The municipality Erineos was founded in 1994 and included the former communes of Kamares, Neos Erineos and Ziria. In 1998 under the Capodistrian Constitution Arravonitsa, Damakini and Salmeniko were added.

References

External links

Official websiteErineos on GTP Travel Pages
{{Erineos Populated places in Achaea