Tsaritsani ( ) or Tsiaritsiani (local ) is a village and a

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 ...

of the Elassona municipality. Before the 2011 local government reform, it was an independent community. The community of Tsaritsani covers an area of 57.791 km².

Population

Geography

Tsaritsani lies in the northwestern part of Larissa regional unit, 40 km from

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

, at the foot of

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (, , ) is an extensive massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, between the regional units of Larissa (regional unit), Larissa and Pieria (regional ...

. It has a land area of 57.791 km². Its geography includes farmlands in the valley areas, the mountains are around the area as well as grasslands, ledges are to be founded in some areas and barren area in the higher elevations.

Economy

The population of Tsaritsani is occupied in

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, animal fiber, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising ...

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

(mainly

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...

s and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

) and

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...

History

The name of Tsaritsani is of Slavic origin, most likely from

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Tsaritsa Tsarina or tsaritsa (also spelled ''csarina'' or ''csaricsa'', ''tzarina'' or ''tzaritza'', or ''czarina'' or ''czaricza''; ; ; ) is the title of a female autocratic ruler (monarch) of Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia, or the title of a tsar's wife ...

. The history of Tsaritsani starts with the Slavic settlement of Greece in the seventh century AD. The settlement is recorded as a village and with two names first as "Kiliseli" and as "Çerniçani" in the Ottoman Tahrir

Defter A ''defter'' was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Etymology The term is derived from Greek , literally 'processed animal skin, leather, fur', meaning a book, having pages of goat parchment used along with papyrus ...

number 101 dating to 1521. The village participated in the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

and offered fighters to the Sacred Band. The first guerilla groups of the

Greek People's Liberation Army The Greek People's Liberation Army (, ''Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós''; ELAS) was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberation Front (EAM) during the period of the Greek resistance until February 1945, when, followi ...

in the area were created from residents of Tsaritsani. The village is the ancestral home of popular wartime singer

Sofia Vembo Sofia Bembou (; 10 February 1910 – 10 March 1978), known professionally as Sofia Vembo (), was a leading Greek singer and actress active from the interwar period to the early postwar years and the 1950s. She became best known for her perfor ...

. The village witnessed mass execution of its people twice, on 12 March 1943 and on 20 August 1944 by the Italian and German occupation forces respectively. As a result, Tsaritsani is a stronghold of the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

. In the European Parliament elections of 2014 the

Communist Party of Greece The Communist Party of Greece (, ΚΚΕ; ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Greece. It was founded in 1918 as the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (SEKE) and adopted its current name in Novem ...

received a 30.83% share of the vote in the village, when its nationwide share was 6.11%.

Sports

Tsaritsani is home to Oikonomos Tsaritsani, a football club that has competed in the third tier of Greek football. Greek international footballer Giorgos Mitsibonas, a Tsaritsani native, started his career from the club.

References

External links

Cultural Club of Tsaritsani
{{Elassona div Populated places in Larissa (regional unit) Elassona