Listed 9 sub titles with search on: History for wider area of: "SPARTI Municipality LACONIA" .
AMYKLES (Ancient sanctuary) SPARTI
The Lacedaemonians were in a state of the utmost terror at this unexpected invasion and quite at a loss how to meet it. Philip on the first day pitched his camp at Amyclae. The district of Amcyclae, one of the most richly timbered and fertile in Laconia, lies about twenty stades from Sparta and includes a temple of Apollo, which is the most famous of all the Laconian shrines. It lies between Sparta and the sea (Polybius 5,18-19).
SPARTI (Town) LACONIA
1834. Sparta is reborn. The Greeks aim at creating a new city in the place
of olive oils and reeds. The area is surveyed by Yohmous, a resident of Magoula.
There are no other ancient remains but the Tomb of Leonidas, the shuttles of the
theatre, the Roman Baths. The governor Kapodistrias had disagreed with recreating
the city claiming that any excavations would only uncover more ancient ruins.
But Othon signed the recreation enactment based on Schtaufert's plans. It was
an ambitious idea, since the city was supposed to have 100.000 people while today
there are 20.000. Nevertheless, it was a noble idea: a Hippodamian system, wide
avenues, spacious squares, public buildings, shopping centers and commercial areas.
1837. Authorities are situated in Sparta and it becomes the capital with
Meletopoulos as its first Mayor. The Residency has already been built on the upper
square and simple, provincial buildings are starting to fill the space around
it. The new buildings are of pure Greek architecture, roofed verandah to the south
and a fireplace in the winteroom. This presented a problem for the gentry who
prefer high - ceiling houses with symmetrical windows, little decorated balconies
and trimmings under the roof like those of Mistras.
1840. The city becomes alive as Douroutis builds a silk factory, the first
of many, a very demanding and expensive task. Unfortunately, nothing is left of
those first constructions.
1860. The city is expanding. Shops are built on the upper square with high
roofs and arches and a second floor to the south where the craftshops are. The
money to finance new buildings comes from the division of the central square.
What's left today are the buildings on Palaiologou Street.
1870. The city is acculturated. The Ionic Museum is made of marble, which
will later be substituted, with cement. The construction of the Cathedral starts
at the top of the hill. The model is neoclassic like Athens,
except for the artificial decorative elements of course.
1890. The city is growing both upwards towards the acropolis and downwards
towards the Palace. The cost of this expansion will be the constant uncovering
of ancient ruins, just like Kapodistrias had foreseen.
1900. Neoclassicism is peeking influencing buildings that were of a different
style. It is the completion of the City
Hall, the Gallery
and many other houses of the gentry.
1930. The Bauhaus movement is beginning to simplify buildings. As a result
the noblemen now prefer an equally dominating but simpler way of expression. K.
Panagiotakos builds the High School for boys. Silk is becoming more rare. Gortsolagos
is responsible for the water supply of Sparta.
1940. The war breaks out. 118 fall victim to German troops at Monothendri.
1950. The need of work draws villagers to Sparta. It is the beginning of
peripheral construction. The houses are simple, rectangular with a traditional
roof. As time goes by and with the help of mechanics, they become more complicated
but not necessarily more beautiful. As far as beauty is concerned, the Xenia Hotel
is built kindly requesting our tending. As far as innovation is concerned, a house
by T. Zenetos is built opposite the 3rd Elementary School. Even today, the prominence
of that house is notable.
1970. Cement is everywhere and so are blocks of flats. The School of Professions
is pulled down as well as neoclassic buildings. The picturesque arches of the
square are vanishing. Cars fill the streets and the image of the old, calm city
is fading away.
1997. The palm trees of Palaiologou Street are still there. The houses
of craftsmen on Pirsogianni Street are still there. All remaining neoclassic buildings
are renovated. The pedestrian zone is alive and the parks are full of people again.
The State is transforming the square aiming at highlighting ancient Sparta and
turning the FIX building by T. Zenetos into a museum. The word is that a walk
on the Evrotas banks will be possible. The fragrance of the Spartan orange trees
is still in the air every Easter.
George Giaxoglou, ed.
This text is cited Apr 2003 from the Municipality of Sparti URL below.
SPARTI (Ancient city) LACONIA
The Hellenes who awaited the Persians in that place were these:
three hundred Spartan armed men; one thousand from Tegea and Mantinea, half from
each place; one hundred and twenty from Orchomenus in Arcadia and one thousand
from the rest of Arcadia; that many Arcadians, four hundred from Corinth, two
hundred from Phlius, and eighty Mycenaeans. These were the Peloponnesians present;
from Boeotia there were seven hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
AMYKLES (Ancient sanctuary) SPARTI
Archelaus had a son Teleclus. In his reign the Lacedaemonians
conquered in war and reduced Amyclae, Pharis, and Geranthrae, cities of the Perioeci,
which were still in the possession of the Achaeans. The inhabitants of Pharis
and Geranthrae, panic-stricken at the onslaught of the Dorians, made an agreement
to retire from the Peloponnesus under a truce, but those of Amyclae were not driven
out at the first assault, but only after a long and stubborn resistance, in which
they distinguished themselves by glorious achievements. To this heroism the Dorians
bore witness by raising a trophy against the Amyclaeans, implying that their success
was the most memorable exploit of that time.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited May 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
SPARTI (Ancient city) LACONIA
He supported the Achaean League against Cleomenes, king of Sparta, whom he defeated at Sellasia in 221, and took Sparta.
AMYKLES (Ancient sanctuary) SPARTI
According to Pausanias, an Achaian or pre-Dorian stronghold, incorporated
by conquest as the fifth village of Sparta probably early in the 8th c. B.C. Excavation
has been almost entirely confined to the hill of Haghia Kyriaki about 5 km S of
Sparta. The prehistoric settlement, which spanned the entire Bronze Age, was concentrated
on the SE slopes; the historical site may have extended in an arc from N of the
hill to modern Amyklae.
A little way down the hill, immediately outside and below a terrace
wall, a small stratified deposit, composed of debris accumulated discontinuously
between the Byzantine and Early Mycenaean periods, has been identified.
The Sanctuary of Apollo was laid out in the 8th c. Its centerpiece
was the tomb (presumably an earthen tumulus) of Hyakinthus, a pre-Greek divinity
whose cult was conflated with that of Apollo in the annual festival of the Hyakinthia.
In the 7th or early 6th c. a 15 m-high statue of Apollo was fashioned in the form
of a cylinder with arms (holding spear and bow) and helmeted head. About 550 B.C.
the face of Apollo was plated with Lydian gold, a gift from King Croesus, and
shortly thereafter Bathykles of Magnesia designed the Doric-Ionic complex later
known as the throne of Apollo. The cult statue was set on an altar faced with
stone reliefs depicting mythological scenes; similar reliefs decorated the interior
and exterior friezes of the surrounding superstructure, whose main entrance was
formed by four half-columns crowned by console capitals. The rich archaic dedications
include bronze vessels and figurines, terracotta figurines (mainly female), and
a few lead and ivory pieces; pottery was comparatively scarce. A contemporary
deposit of over 10,000 dedications to Alexandra-Kassandra has been excavated at
Haghia Paraskevi nearby; these and sporadic finds from the neighborhood confirm
the evidence of Haghia Kyriaki that Amyklaean material culture, like that of Sparta,
reached its zenith in the 7th and 6th c. There is nothing noteworthy among the
later finds.
P. Cartledge, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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