Modern Greek
LÁRISA,
town, capital of the nomós (department)
of Lárisa and the chief town of Thessaly (Thessalía), Greece,
on the Piniós Potamós (river). Since the 9th century it has
been the seat of a bishop.
In
antiquity Larissa was the seat of the Aleuad clan, founded by Aleuas, who
claimed descent from Heracles. The poet Pindar and the physician
Hippocrates, attracted by the Aleuad court, died there. In 480 BC the
Aleuads supported the Persians. During the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC),
they supported Athens; thereafter the city was weakened by civil strife.
In 357 BC the last Aleuads called in Philip II of Macedonia against the
tyrants of Pherae, and from 344 to 196 Larissa remained under Macedonia.
Rome then made it capital of the reorganized Thessalian League.
The
emperor Justinian fortified the city, whose name means Citadel, but in AD
985 it fell to the Bulgars, and in 1204 it was occupied by the Franks of
the Fourth Crusade. It was conquered by the Serbs in 1348 and in 1393 by
the Turks, who held it until 1881, when Thessaly was annexed to the
kingdom of Greece, beginning an exodus of Turkish residents, all of whom
had left by the 1920s. In 1941 Larissa was devastated by an earthquake,
and it also suffered considerably
during the German occupation (1941-44).
The
centre of Thessaly's thriving agricultural economy, Larissa is in the
midst of the Thessaly plain. The city produces high-quality ouzo (anise
liqueur) and silk cloth; it has direct rail links to Vólos and
Athens and airport facilities. In the 1960s there was some industrial
development, and there are large factories to manufacture sugar from
locally grown sugar beet, as well as a paper-pulp plant. Pop. (1981) city,
102,426; nomós, 254,295.
According to archaeological evidence, the capital
of Thessaly lies atop a site that has been inhabited since the
tenth millennium before Christ.
A major commercial and industrial centre, Larissa sits in the
middle of the plain of Thessaly, a few kilometres off the
AthensThessaloniki National Road. Tradition has it that
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, died here. Worth seeing are
the mediaeval fortress, Alcazar Park and the ancient theatre. Not
to be missed are the Archaeological Museum with its rich exhibits
of palaeolithic and archaic artifacts and the Art Gallery, with
its admirable collection of fine paintings.
The Pinios River flowing through the town and the old mansions
with their spacious courtyards and luxuriant gardens give Larissa
a charm all its own.
According to archaeological evidence, the capital of Thessaly
lies atop a site that has been inhabited since the tenth
millennium before Christ.
Other places worth seeing in the Prefecture of Larissa are the
enchanting emerald valley of Agia, idyllic Stomio with its
bottomless springs and Agiokambos and its enormous beach. The
latter two localities are ideal summer holiday spots
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