Nea Anchialos () is a town and 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' ...

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. It is situated southwest of

and north of

Almyros Almyros or Halmyros (, ) is a town and a municipality of the regional units of Greece, regional unit of Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia, modern regions of Greece, region of Thessaly, Greece. It lies in the center of prosperous fertile plain know ...

, on the Pagasetic Gulf. It is located on the

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Lamia Lamia (; ), in ancient Greek mythology, was a child-eating monster and, in later tradition, was regarded as a type of night-haunting spirit or "daimon". In the earliest myths, Lamia was a beautiful queen of ancient Libya who had an affair with ...

-Volos national highway. The area of the municipal unit is and its population 5,881 people (2021). Nea Anchialos - Pagasitikos

History

Antiquity

The modern town is built on the ruins of the ancient city of Pyrasos (Πύρασος), and is associated with the nearby city of Thessalian or Phthiotic Thebes, near the modern village of Mikrothivai.

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

mentions Pyrasos in his list of ships (''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'' B.695) together with Phylace and Itona, which belonged to the kingdom of

Protesilaus In Greek mythology, Protesilaus (; ) was a Greek hero, hero in the ''Iliad'' who was venerated at Temenos, cult sites in Thessaly and Thrace. Protesilaus was the son of Iphiclus (mythology), Iphiclus, a "lord of many sheep"; as grandson of the e ...

. According to

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

(IX.435), who discusses its topography, "well-harboured Pyrasos" (εὑλίμενος Πύρασος) was 20 '' stadia'' from Phthiotic Thebes. Pyrasos is scarcely known from historical sources, except that it was an active harbour and featured a famous temple of

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over cro ...

and Kore, after which the harbour was later known as Demetrion. The only excavation which took place on the hill of Magoula, the old acropolis, southeast of Nea Anchialos, proves that the site was peopled since the earliest

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

period (6th millennium BC) by fishermen and agriculturalists. Archaeologically, the remains of Pyrasos are scant, and the city is barely known in historical times. An arm from an oversized statue, which came to light in 1965, was attributed to Demeter. Possibly the most significant find is a small fragment of an ancient epigraph, discovered in the debris of the big Basilica D with the name Pyrasos, confirming the location of the city. In the late 4th century BC, Pyrasos was joined (

synoecism Synoecism or synecism ( ; , ''sunoikismos'', ), also spelled synoikism ( ), was originally the amalgamation of villages in Ancient Greece into ''poleis'', or city-states. Etymologically, the word means "dwelling together (''syn'') in the same h ...

) with the neighbouring cities of Phylake and Phthiotic Thebes. The new conurbation took the name of Phthiotic or Thessalian Thebes. The city remained prosperous under Roman rule, but it was moved from the inland site of the old Phthiotic Thebes back to Pyrasos near the sea. The city's prosperity from the 4th through the 6th centuries AD is attested by the number of its

Early Christian Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and be ...

monuments, but this was brought to an end in a great fire in the late 7th century that destroyed the city. The city was rebuilt and apparently continued to be of some note in the early

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 ...

period—its bishop is last mentioned in the 8th/9th century—but it never recovered and it was eventually eclipsed by the nearby port city of Halmyros.

Nea Anchialos

Nea Anchialos was founded in 1906 by Greeks who fled the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

town of Anchialos (modern

Pomorie Pomorie ( ), historically known as Anchialos (, ), is a town and seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria, located on a narrow rocky peninsula in Burgas Bay on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is situated in Burgas Province, 20,5 k ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

) after massive anti-Greek riots, provoked by the Greek-Bulgarian struggle in Macedonia. It is home to Nea Anchialos National Airport.

Notes

References

Nea Anchialos City guideMunicipality websiteHellenic Ministry Of Culture - Nea Anchialos/Fthiotic ThebesNea Anchialos Online Tourist Guide
{{Authority control Populated places in Magnesia (regional unit) Volos