Methoni, Messenia
Methoni
Μεθώνη | |
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UTC+3 (EEST ) |
Methoni (
Its economy is dominated by tourism, attracted by its beaches (including Tapia, Kokkinia and Kritika) and its historical castle.
Subdivisions
The municipal unit of Methoni is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets):
- Methoni (Methoni, Kokkinia, Kritika, Sapientza (island), Tapia)
- Evangelismos (Evangelismos, Dentroulia, Kamaria)
- Foiniki
- Foinikounta (Foinikounta, Anemomylos, Chounakia, Grizokampos, Loutsa, Schiza (island))
- Kainourgio Chorio (Kainourgio Chorio, Varakes)
- Lachanada (Lachanada, Nerantzies)
Historical population
Year | Town population | Municipality population |
---|---|---|
1991 | 1,173 | 2,666 |
2001 | 1,169 | 2,638 |
2011 | 1,209 | 2,598 |
2021 | 1,029 | 2,157 |
History
Antiquity and Byzantine era
Methoni has been identified as the city of Pedasus, which Homer mentions under the name "ampeloessa" (of vine leaves), as the last of the seven εὐναιόμενα πτολίεθρα (eunaiomena ptoliethra) (well-peopled cities) that Agamemnon offers Achilles in order to subdue his rage. Pausanias knew the city as Mothone, named either after the daughter of Oeneus or after the rock Mothon, which protects the harbour, and mentioned a temple to Athena Anemotis there.[4] The Oinoussai complex of islands protected the port of Methoni from the turbulent sea. Along with the rest of Messenia, the town gained its independence from the Spartans in 369 BC.
Like other Mediterranean coastal settlements, Methoni was probably heavily affected by the tsunami that followed the earthquake in AD 365. Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that as a result of the earthquake some ships had been "hurled nearly two miles from the shore", giving as an example a Laconian vessel that was stranded "near the town of Methone".[5]
During the Byzantine years Methoni retained its remarkable harbor and remained one of the most important cities of the Peloponnese, seat of a bishopric.
First Venetian era
The Republic of Venice had its eye on Methoni (Modon) since the 12th century, due to its location on the route from Venice to the Eastern markets. In 1125, they launched an attack against pirates based at Methoni, who had captured some Venetian traders on their way home from the east.
In the mid-12th century, the Muslim traveller and geographer
At the time of the
Koroni was fortified, but Methoni was, for the time being, left without walls.
Ottoman era
With the Ottoman conquest of the Despotate of the Morea, the town came under threat; Christian and Jewish refugees from the rest of the Peloponnese flocked to its walls, while the Turks raided its environs. In 1499–1500, Ottoman ships raided the town from the sea, while Sultan Bayezid II in person arrived to supervise its siege. After 28 days, on 9 August 1500, Methoni fell. The populace was either massacred or sold off as slaves.[6] In 1532, the Knights Hospitaller briefly recaptured the fortress and left with reportedly 1,600 Muslim prisoners.[6]
Then Sultan Bayezid came inside; he entered and prayed in the Frankish church which he converted into a mosque, as it remains to the present day. [Other churches were burned.] They butchered the pitiable Christians. They say that the slaughter was so great that blood ran into the sea and stained it red. From there, after Bayezid had prayed, he… ordered all Methonians captured alive, young and old, to be brought before him. He ordered the execution of all those who were ten years or older; and so it happened. They gathered their heads and bodies, put them together, and built a big tower outside the city, which can still be seen nowadays. This happened in 1499.
The Venetians returned under
Following the Ottoman recapture of the town, the pre-1684 owners were allowed to claim their former property. A period of recovery followed, particularly after 1725, when the town once more became a hub of trade with the Ottoman provinces of
Greek War of Independence
By the time of the outbreak of the
Methoni in art and literature
One of the possible interpretations of
About seventy years later, after the Battle of Lepanto (7 October 1571), Miguel de Cervantes was taken to Methoni as a prisoner and spent some time in the Turkish tower. He might have conceived a few pages of the Don Quixote while there.[16]
On 10 August 1806, François-René de Chateaubriand disembarked at Methoni and started his Grand Tour across Greece and the Middle East, an account of which he published in 1811 as the Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem (Itinerary from Paris to Jerusalem).[16]
Climate
Methoni has a hot-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa). Precipitations falls mainly in the winter, with relatively little rain in the summer. Methoni experiences mild winters and hot, dry summers. The average annual temperature is 19.0 °C or 66.2 °F. About 681 mm or 26.8 inches of precipitation falls annually.[17]
Transportation
Methoni is the southern terminus of the Greek National Road 9 (Patras - Kyparissia - Methoni). Another road links Methoni with Koroni to its east.
References
- ^ "Αποτελέσματα Απογραφής Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2021, Μόνιμος Πληθυσμός κατά οικισμό" [Results of the 2021 Population - Housing Census, Permanent population by settlement] (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority. 29 March 2024.
- ^ "ΦΕΚ B 1292/2010, Kallikratis reform municipalities" (in Greek). Government Gazette.
- ^ "Population & housing census 2001 (incl. area and average elevation)" (PDF) (in Greek). National Statistical Service of Greece. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-21.
- ^ Pausanias Description of Greece 4.35
- ^ Kelly 2004, p. 141, "For the mass of waters returning when least expected killed many thousands by drowning, and with the tides whipped up to a height as they rushed back, some ships, after the anger of the watery element had grown old, were seen to have sunk, and the bodies of people killed in shipwrecks lay there, faces up or down. Other huge ships, thrust out by the mad blasts, perched on the roofs of houses, as happened at Alexandria, and others were hurled nearly two miles from the shore, like the Laconian vessel near the town of Methone which I saw when I passed by, yawning apart from long decay."
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bees 1993, p. 217.
- ^ Bon 1969, p. 57.
- ^ Bon 1969, pp. 57ff..
- ^ Setton 1976, pp. 24–26, 34.
- ^ Bon 1969, p. 66.
- ^ Bon 1969, p. 67.
- ^ Bon 1969, pp. 92–93, 99.
- ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam Volume VII. Brill. 1993. p. 217.
- ISBN 9780306825569.
- ^ "Fabio Isman reports on scholar Augusto Gentili's identification of sitter of portrait "Young Knight in Landscape" at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza".
- ^ a b Alexander Eliot. The Penguin Guide to Greece. London, 1991
- ^ "Methoni climate: Average Temperature, weather by month, Methoni water temperature - Climate-Data.org". en.climate-data.org. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
Sources
- Bees, Nikos A. (1993). "Modon". In ISBN 978-90-04-09419-2.
- Bon, Antoine (1969). La Morée franque. Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d'Achaïe [The Frankish Morea. Historical, Topographic and Archaeological Studies on the Principality of Achaea] (in French). Paris: De Boccard. OCLC 869621129.
- Kelly, G. (2004). "Ammianus and the Great Tsunami". S2CID 160152988.
- ISBN 0-87169-114-0.
External links
- Information on the municipality of Methoni from the Greek Ministry of Interior Archived 2003-10-27 at the Wayback Machine (in Greek)