Lamia (Greek:Λαμία,Lamía,pronounced[laˈmi.a]) is a city incentral Greece. The city dates back to antiquity, and is today the capital of theregional unit ofPhthiotis and of theCentral Greece region (comprising five regional units). According to the 2021 census, the Municipality of Lamia has a population of 66,657 while Lamia itself has 47,529 inhabitants. The city is located on the slopes ofMount Othrys, near the riverSpercheios. It serves as the agricultural center of a fertile rural and livestock area.
One account says that the city was named after the mythological figure ofLamia, the daughter ofPoseidon and queen of the Trachineans. Another holds that it is named after the Malians, the inhabitants of the surrounding area. In the Middle Ages, Lamia was calledZetounion (Ζητούνιον), a name first encountered in the8th Ecumenical Council in 869. It was known asGirton underFrankish rule following theFourth Crusade and laterEl Citó when it was controlled by theCatalan Company of mercenaries. InTurkish, it was sometimes calledİzdin orİzzeddin.[3] The city was also known as Zeitoun.[4]
Exhibits at the archaeological museum of the cityPostcard of Lamia, 1917.Eleftherias Square
Archaeological excavations have shown the site of Lamia to have been inhabited since at least theBronze Age (3rd millennium BC).[5]
In antiquity, the city played an important role due to its strategic location, controlling the narrow coastal plain aboveThermopylae that connected southern Greece withThessaly and the rest of theBalkans. The city formed apolis (city-state).[6] The city was therefore fortified in the 5th century BC, and was contested by theMacedonians, Thessalians andAetolians until theRoman conquest in the early 2nd century BC.[5] AfterAlexander the Great's death in 323 BC, theAthenians and other Greeks rebelled against Macedonian overlordship.Antipatros, the regent of Macedon, took refuge behind the substantial walls of the city (Lamian War, 323–322 BC). The war ended with the death of the Athenian generalLeosthenes, and the arrival of a 20,000-strongMacedonian army. Lamia prospered afterwards, especially in the 3rd century BC under Aetolian hegemony, which came to an end whenManius Acilius Glabrio sacked the city in 190 BC.
Little is known of the city's history for a number of centuries after that. InLate Antiquity, the city was the seat of abishop (attested since 431),suffragan ofLarissa,[7][8] but had declined to obscurity: for instance, it is not shown on the 5th-centuryTabula Peutingeriana. Some archaeological remains from the period have been found in the Castle (the city's ancientacropolis), including abasilica, coins and marble inscriptions, while the walls of the Castle are thought to have been rebuilt underJustinian I in the 6th century.[8] TheSynecdemus of Hierocles includes Lamia among the 16 cities of theprovince of Thessaly.[9]
The city was occupied bySlavs in the 7th century, and re-appears only in 869/70 under the name ofZetounion (Ζητοῦνιον), probably deriving from a Slavic word for "grain".[5][7][8] The city played once more a role in theByzantine–Bulgarian wars of the late 10th century due to its vicinity to Thermopylae: it was near the town that the Byzantine generalNikephoros Ouranos scored a crushing victory over TsarSamuel of Bulgaria in theBattle of Spercheios in 997.[8] The city was visited by EmperorBasil II in his triumphal journey to Greece in 1018, and in 1165, the Jewish travellerBenjamin of Tudela recorded 50 Jewish families in the city and of raids by the neighbouringVlachs.[7]
TheCatalans held the city from 1318 until 1391, when it passed to theAcciaioli Dukes of Athens. The fortress was razed by theOttoman SultanBayezid I in 1394.[8][14] After the disastrousBattle of Ankara in 1402, the weakened Ottomans wereforced to return some territories, including the region of Zetounion, to Byzantine rule. The Turks besieged the city for two years sometime before 1415, but the Byzantines resisted successfully. Sometime between 1424 and July 1426, however, the city had been once more conquered by the Turks.[15] Apart from an attack by the troops of theDespotate of the Morea in 1444, which plundered the city,[14] from then on the town remained under firm Ottoman control until it became part of the newly independentKingdom of Greece in 1832.[5] Until theannexation of Thessaly in 1881, it was a border city (the borders were drawn at a site known as "Taratsa" just north of Lamia).
Lamia has a hot-summerMediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification:Csa) withhumid subtropical (Cfa) influences due to the lack of a distinct dry season. It has 4 distinct seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn. The cold and wet period lasts from late October to mid April and the warm, moderately dry period from mid April to late October, with transitional phases in between. The record lowest temperature ever in Lamia is −12.6 °C (9.3 °F), recorded in December 2001 and the record highest is 46.5 °C (115.7 °F) °C, recorded during the summer of 1973.[16]
Climate data for Lamia airport,Central Greece 1991–2020 normals and extremes, (rainfall, humidity 1970–2010), 143.4 m asl
Statuette of a boy. Marble. Found near Lamia (area of ancient Lilaia). The nude boy leans against a pillar, on which he is pressing a duck. He wears a ribbon in his hair and his smiling face is turned toward the duck. Depiction of a local god or a young dictator. 3rd c. BC.National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Highway 1 passes close to the city, while Central Greece Highway (Highway 3) is under construction, which will start south of Lamia. Interurban KTEL station serves transfers to and from Lamia.[19]
The urban KTEL of the city serves the transport of the apartments and settlements of the Municipality of Lamia. Also, in Lamia there are several taxi "piazzas". City taxis are red. In addition, cycle paths operate within Lamia.
Lamia Airport is located 2 kilometres from the Old Lamia-Athens National Road. The airport belongs to the Air Force and has no commercial or passenger traffic. It is used in emergency situations. The Aeroclub of Fthiotida also uses it for its activities.
The municipality Lamia was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 5 former municipalities, that became municipal units:[21]
Lamia has some sport clubs that play in the higher national divisions. For a period of one season, Lamia hosted the Athenian basketball clubPanellinios B.C. The main clubs of Lamia are shown below.
^abcdefgΚάστρο Λαμίας.ODYSSEUS Portal (in Greek). Hellenic Ministry of Culture. Archived fromthe original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved26 July 2012.
^Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen (2004). "Thessaly and Adjacent Regions".An inventory of archaic and classical poleis. New York:Oxford University Press. pp. 712–713.ISBN0-19-814099-1.
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