Kalloni () is a town in the west-central part of the island of

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...

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 ...

. It is the seat of the West Lesbos municipality and the Kalloni municipal unit within it. Prior to 2011 the current municipal unit was a

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' ...

. The name also existed in ancient times, though the conventional transcription of the classical name in English is "Callone". It has a land area of 241.946 km². At the 2021 census it had a population of 7,762 inhabitants. The municipal seat was the town of Kalloní. The unit's largest other towns are

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

, Parákoila, Dáfia, Fília, Skalochóri, Anemotia, and Kerámi. Kalloni was known as ''Kalonya'' during Ottoman rule, when it was a ''nahiya'' (township) center in the Molova ''kaza'' of the Midilli ''sanjak''. Lesbos became part of the Kingdom of Greece in 1912.

Description

Kalloni is surrounded by the gulf waters, and supplied by a plain of 100 km², through which six rivers flow. There is always enough water from the underground and spring waters for its

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

s and

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

s. Kalloni was historically the crossroad where the main roads passed. This has not changed much from

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

times. The village is surrounded by historic

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

. In the last decade, the central

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

of Kalloni developed in the field of trade. Kalloni was the seat of the

that comprised the settlements: *

* Anemotia * Arisvi * Dafia * Filia * Kalloni * Kerami * Parakoila * Skalochori

Festivals

The summer

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

s present a special interest. The festival of

sardine Sardine and pilchard are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring suborder Clupeoidei. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century; a somewhat dubious etymology says it com ...

s in Skala Kalloni in July, where freshly grilled sardines are offered to the visitors with plenty of ouzo accompanied with live traditional music and dance shows. On 16 August a festival takes place in the main square of Kalloni in order to honor émigrés. The livestock breeding in Agra, the

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

festival in Anemotia as well as the panigyri of Saint Trinity on 7 July in Kalloni, which includes three days of feasting and

horse race Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

Historical sites

There are significant archaeological sites on the plain. The ancient Lesbians worshiped many of the ancient

gods A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

in great sanctuaries, parts of which are preserved today. The temple of Messa was dedicated to Zeus, Dionysus and Ira, constituted a worship and communication centre for all the Lesbians, and at the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. was the seat of the federation of all the cities of Lesbos. During the early Christian period a basilica was erected over the temple, which was succeeded by a mid-Byzantine church. There are many remains, ruins, altars and ancient remnants around the region, signs of worship of the Lesbian people who arrived there as pilgrims to the great sanctuary of Pyrra and of the entire island. Important archaeological sites are also found in Apothika, between Parakila and Agra, where the ancient retaining wall of about six meters height is located, but also in Makara, bearing the name of the first settler of Lesbos during ancient times.

Bay and lagoon

The lagoon of ancient

Pyrrha In Greek mythology, Pyrrha (; ) was the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora and wife of Deucalion of whom she had three sons, Hellen, Amphictyon, Orestheus; and three daughters Protogeneia, Pandora and Thyia. According to some accounts, Hell ...

is now the Gulf of Kalloni or Bay of Kalloni. The ancient city of

is currently Achladeri Lesvos, which sits to the east of the Bay of Kalloni. The Gulf of Kalloni is a shallow, rich wetland that hosts aquatic and avian life, including

flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes () are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbe ...

porpoise Porpoises () are small Oceanic dolphin, dolphin-like cetaceans classified under the family Phocoenidae. Although similar in appearance to dolphins, they are more closely related to narwhals and Beluga whale, belugas than to the Oceanic dolphi ...

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

s,Leroi M. A.. 2014. ''The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science''.

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

and

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

s. It is especially renowned for its yield of

s. Following his departure from

Plato's Academy The Academy (), variously known as Plato's Academy, or the Platonic Academy, was founded in Athens by Plato ''circa'' 387 BC. The academy is regarded as the first institution of higher education in the west, where subjects as diverse as biolog ...

after being passed over for the school's headship,

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

spent a few years with his friend

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...

at the Pyrrha lagoon, now the Gulf of Kalloni. There he studied animal life: his observations formed material for the very first treatises ever written on the subject of

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

Aristotle's biology Aristotle's biology is the theory of biology, grounded in systematic observation and collection of data, mainly zoology, zoological, embodied in Aristotle's books on the science. Many of his observations were made during his stay on the island ...

, namely his books on the "history, parts, movement, progression, and generation" of animals.

Media

In Kalloni Lesvos there are two Radio Stations:

References

External links

Official website

Kalloni City
{{West Lesbos div Populated places in Lesbos West Lesbos