Lamia

Name

One account holds that the city was named after the mythological figure of Lamia, the daughter of Poseidon and queen of the Trachineans. Another account holds that it is named after the Malians, the inhabitants of the surrounding area. In the Middle Ages, Lamia was called Zetounion (Ζητούνιον), a name first encountered in the 8th Ecumenical Council in 869. It was known as Girton under Frankish rule following the Fourth Crusade and later El Citó when it was controlled by the Catalan Company of mercenaries. In Turkish, it was sometimes called İzdin or İzzeddin. The city was also known as Zeitoun.

History

Archaeological excavations have shown the site of Lamia to have been inhabited since at least the Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC).

In antiquity, the city played an important role due to its strategic location, controlling the narrow coastal plain above Thermopylae that connected southern Greece with Thessaly and the rest of the Balkans. In its ancient phase, Lamia was located closer to the sea, which explains the existence of the nearby temple dedicated to Poseidon. With the flow of the Spercheios river, the terrain changed and the sealine was dragged to the interior of the Malian Gulf -this geological phenomenon altered the straights of Thermopylae, too.

Lamia constituted a polis (city-state). The city was therefore fortified in the 5th century BC, and was contested by the Macedonians, Thessalians and Aetolians until the Roman conquest in the early 2nd century BC. After Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC, the Athenians and other Greeks rebelled against Macedonian overlordship. Antipatros, the regent of Macedon, took refuge behind the substantial walls of Lamia at the beginning of the Lamian War, 323–322 BC. The war ended with the death of the Athenian general Leosthenes, and the arrival of a 20,000-strong Makedonian army. Lamia prospered afterwards, especially in the 3rd century BC in the Aetolian League, up until the Roman Manius Acilius Glabrio sacked the city in 190 BC.

Little is known of the city's history for a number of centuries after that. In Late Antiquity, the city was the seat of a bishop (attested since 431), suffragan of Larissa, but had declined to obscurity: for instance, it is not shown on the 5th-century Tabula Peutingeriana. Some archaeological remains from the period have been found in the Castle (the city's ancient acropolis), including a basilica, coins and marble inscriptions, while the walls of the Castle are thought to have been rebuilt under Justinian I in the 6th century. The Synecdemus of Hierocles includes Lamia among the 16 cities of the province of Thessaly.

The city was occupied by Slavs in the 7th century, and re-appears only in 869/70 under the name of Zetounion (Ζητοῦνιον), probably deriving from a Slavic word for "grain". The city played once more a role in the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars of the late 10th century due to its vicinity to Thermopylae: it was near the town that the Byzantine general Nikephoros Ouranos scored a crushing victory over Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria in the Battle of Spercheios in 997. The city was visited by Emperor Basil II in his triumphal journey to Greece in 1018, and in 1165, the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela recorded 50 Jewish families in the city and of raids by the neighbouring Vlachs.

Climate

Lamia has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa). 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.

Landmarks

Lamia Castle, the city's fortified Acropolis. The castle had a military use until the years of king Otto I, when it housed the army barracks.

Platia Eleftherias (Freedom Square) - site of the towns independence day parade, and main cathedral. Also has many cafes with outdoor seating.

Platia Diakou (Diakos Square) - square containing the statue of Athanasios Diakos

Platia Parkou (Park Square)

Platia Laou (People's Square) - square featuring the statue of Aris Velouchiotis

Transport

Road

The EO1 and EO3 roads pass through the city, with the Lamia Eastern Bypass connecting the two roads to the north east of the city: the EO38 starts from the city, heading west towards Agrinio and Thermo. Lamia is bypassed by the A1 motorway to the south east, and the A3 motorway (which branches off the A1 near Anthili) to the south west. An KTEL station serves intercity bus routes to and from Lamia.

Bus

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.

Rail

The city is served by Lamta railway station, with Regional services to Leianokladi and Stylida.

Air transport

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.

Administration

The municipality Lamia was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 5 former municipalities, that became municipal units:

Gorgopotamos

Lamia

Leianokladi (Lianokladi)

Pavliani

Ypati

The municipality has an area of 947.006km2, the municipal unit 413.482km2.

List of mayors

The mayors of Lamia from 1881 to 2023 were as follows:

Education

Six departments of the University of Thessaly based in the city.

Notable people

Athanasios Diakos (1788–1821) Greek military commander during the Greek War of Independence, died in Lamia

Dimitrios Giatzis (1891–1964) Army officer

Ioannis Paparrodou (1904–1941) Army Officer

Aris Velouchiotis (nom de guerre of Athanasios Klaras) (1905–1945), leader of ELAS during the World War II guerrilla Greek Resistance

Ilias Tsirimokos (1907–1968) politician, former Prime Minister of Greece

Thanos Leivaditis (1934–2005) actor and screenwriter

Dimitris Koutsoumpas (1955) General Secretary of the KKE

Niki Bakoyianni (1968) high jumper (Olympic silver medalist)

Christos Staikouras (1973) economist, politician, New Democracy's Coordinator of Economic Affairs, Minister of Finance

Evgenia Dimitropoulou (1984) actress

Konstantinos G. Polymeros (1995) Sinologist, author.

International relations

Lamia is twinned with:

Rzeszów, Poland

Chioggia, Italy

Mytilene, Greece

Paphos, Cyprus

Sporting teams

Lamia has some sport clubs that play in the higher national divisions. For a period of one season, Lamia hosted the Athenian basketball club Panellinios B.C. The main clubs of Lamia are shown below.