Makrinitsa (), nicknamed "balcony of Mt. Pelion," is a village and a former

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 Magnesia,

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 ...

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

Volos Volos (; ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the capital of the Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia regional unit of the Thessaly Region. Volos ...

, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 59.903 km².

Name

The name is first attested in the early 13th century through the Makrinitissa Monastery. "Makrinitissa" itself is a more scholarly form of "Makrinitsa", which must have been the colloquial name even at the time. It is of Slavic origin, originally ''Mokrinitsa'', a diminutive form of ''Mokrina'', "wet place", referring to the water-rich environs of the village. The name was Hellenized with the change of the first vowel to "a" from the Greek word ''makrys'', "long".

Location

It is situated in the northwestern part of the Pelion mountains, 6 km northeast of

. One of the most characteristic traditional settlements, full of mansions and houses that look like hanging ornaments on the green mountain side. One of the traditional coffee houses is decorated with a fresco by the famous Greek painter Theofilos. The picturesque cobbled paths of Makrinitsa are scattered with traditional water fountains. Makrinitsa is a popular tourist destination, especially during the winter. The village is the home of the Museum of Folk Art and History of Pelion, housed in the historic Topali Mansion, with over 1,500 objects related to the folk culture and everyday life of the region.

Historical population

Gallery

File:Makrinitsa from portaria.jpg, Makrinitsa as seen from Portaria File:Makrinitsadown.JPG, Makrinitsa File:Markinitsautumn.JPG, Makrinitsa in autumn File:Makrinitsa6.JPG, Central Makrinitsa File:Makrinitsa3.JPG, Central Makrinitsa File:Makrinitsa1.JPG, General view of the village File:Makrinitsa dom.JPG, View of a traditional house File:Makrinitsa5.JPG File:Makrinitsa2.JPG File:Volos view from Makrinitsa.JPG

References

External links

* Detailed guide fo
visiting Makrinitsa

{{Authority control Populated places in Pelion Populated places in Magnesia (regional unit) Volos