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

Meteora The Meteora (; , ) is a rock formation in the regional unit of Trikala, in Thessaly, in northwestern Greece, hosting one of the most prominent complexes of Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox monastery, monasteries, viewed locally as se ...

in the

Trikala Trikala () is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala (regional unit), Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios (Thessaly), Pineios. According to the Greek Natio ...

regional unit, part of

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 ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. The population was 11,492 at the 2021 census, of which 8,573 in the town proper. The

monasteries are located near the town. Kalabaka is the northwestern terminal of the old Thessaly Railways, 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. In the 10th century AD, it was known as Stagoi (Σταγοί), a

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 ...

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 Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...

church. Relics of an ancient Greek temple – probably of god

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

– have been incorporated in the wall of the town's oldest and most renowned church, dedicated to the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

. Stagoi is first mentioned in ''Diatyposis'' written by the Byzantine Emperor

Leo VI the Wise Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise (; 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 read, leading to his epithet. During ...

(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 () was one of the Greek Rump state, successor states of the Byzantine Empire established in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 by a branch of the Angelos dynasty. It claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ...

. 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, 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. 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 or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

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 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, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

, thereby enjoying privileges and donations from the

Byzantine emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

s throughout the

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

. 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 Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

of the Metropolis of Larissa, 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 () was one of the

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

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

The town is situated at the foot of the

massif, a region of sandstone outcrops formed by weathering along criss-cross faults in the foothills of the Chasia Mountains between

and

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

. Evidently an old delta was indurated and raised during orogenesis of the region with a high degree of

faulting In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

. Drainage was into the Pineios River Valley. The entire Meteora massif belongs to one municipal unit, Kalabaka. The city is located at the foot of the massif on the SW side of the massif, which happens to be on the left, or northern, bank of the river, which flows N-S there. The settlements and communities of the municipal unit, named after villages, divide the massif. The other seven municipal units surround Kalabaka, but are not in the massif.

Government

The governmental status of Kalabaka has varied somewhat in the 21st century. In the reforms of 2011 it became a Municipality. However, in 2018 the name of the new municipality was changed to Meteora, while its seat was made Kalabaka, now a municipal unit. Subdivisions of the Kalabaka Municipality now had to become communities of Kalabaka Municipal Unit. In summary, Kalampaka is a municipal unit of the municipality of

. The municipal unit of Kalampaka has an area of 277.087 km². It consists of the following communities (constituent settlements in parentheses): * 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

Twin towns

Kalampaka has two

twin towns A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inte ...

: *

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. Together with the neighboring cities of Nuremberg, Fürth and Erlangen, Schwabach forms one of the three me ...

, Germany *

Le Haillan Le Haillan (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Gironde Departments of France, department in south-western France. It is a suburb of the city of Bordeaux, and is adjacent to it on the northwest side. Population Landmarks *Château Bel ...

, France

Recognition

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

Skai TV Skai TV is a Greek free-to-air television network based in Piraeus, operating under Skai Group. It has been broadcasting since 2006 and is available via digital terrestrial transmission, as well as subscription-based services such as Nova and ...

show ''I LOVE GR''.

Notable people

* Kostas Fortounis, 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 archéologique 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 Populated places in Trikala (regional unit) Meteora (municipality) Provinces of Greece Cities in ancient Greece Aromanian settlements in Greece Natura 2000 in Greece