Product Code Database
Euboea ( ; , ), also known by its modern spelling Evia ( ; , ), is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete, and the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest point). In general outline it is a long and narrow island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to . Its geographic orientation is from northwest to southeast, and it is traversed throughout its length by a mountain range, which forms part of the chain that bounds Thessaly on the east, and is continued south of Euboia in the lofty islands of Andros, Tinos and Mykonos.
It forms most of the regional unit of Euboea, which also includes Skyros and a small area of the Greek mainland.
In the Middle Ages, the island was often referred to by Byzantine authors as Chalcis (Χαλκίς), the name of its capital, or Euripus Strait (Εὔριπος), the name of the strait that separates the island from the Greek mainland; but the ancient name Euboea remained in use by classicizing authors until the 16th century.
The phrase στὸν Εὔριπον , rebracketing as στὸ Νεὔριπον , became Negroponte ('Black Bridge') in Italian by folk etymology, the ponte being interpreted as the bridge of Chalcis. This name was most relevant when the island was under Venetian Greece.Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, J.B. Bury, ed., Methuen, 1898 p. 6:390, footnote 69 That name entered common use in the West in the 13th century, with other variants being Egripons, Negripo, and Negropont.
Under Ottoman Empire rule, the island and its capital were known as Eğriboz or Ağriboz, again after the Euripos strait.
Geography and nature divide the island itself into three distinct parts: the fertile and forested north (which suffered major damage in the August 2021 forest fires); the forested mountainous centre, with agriculture limited to the coastal valleys; and the barren south.
The main mountains include Dirfi (), Kantili (), Pyxaria () in the northeast and Ochi Mountains () in the south. The neighboring gulfs are the Pagasetic Gulf in the north, Malian Gulf, North Euboean Gulf in the west, the Euboic Sea and the Petalion Gulf. The Petalioi archipelago lies to the southwest, while the Monilia islands lie to the west.
With a total land area of , the island had a population of 198,130 at the 2001 census.
Most of the island features a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa) with hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters.
Chalcis and Eretria were rival cities, and appear to have been equally powerful for a while. One of the earliest major military conflicts in Greek history took place between them, known as the Lelantine War, in which many other Greek city-states also took part.Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War. I 15. In 490 BC, Eretria was utterly ruined by the Persian armies. Eretria, Athens, and other Ionian Greek states had previously burned the Persian city of Sardis and participated in the Ionian revolution. After Eretria was destroyed, its inhabitants were transported as captives to Persian Empire. Though it was restored nearby its original site after the Battle of Marathon, the city never regained its former eminence. Following the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium in 480 BC, Persian forces occupied Euboea along with Attica and Boeotia. Following their decisive defeat at the Battle of Plataea the following year, the Persians withdrew from all of their European possessions, including Euboea.
Both cities gradually lost influence to Athens, which saw Euboea as a strategic territory. Euboea was an important source of grain and cattle, and controlling the island meant Athens could prevent invasion and better protect its trade routes from piracy. Athens invaded Chalcis in 506 BC and settled 4,000 Attic Greeks on their lands. After this conflict, the whole of the island was gradually reduced to an Athenian dependency. Another struggle between Euboea and Athens broke out in 446. Led by Pericles, the Athenians subdued the revolt, and captured Istiaia in the north of the island for their own settlement.
By 410 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, the island succeeded in regaining its independence. Euboea participated in Greek affairs until it fell under the control of Philip II of Macedon after the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. It was incorporated into the Roman Republic in the second century BC. Aristotle died on the island in 322 BC soon after fleeing Athens for his mother's family estate in Chalcis. From the early Hellenistic period to well into the Roman Empire, the island was organized into the Euboean League.
In 1157 all the coastal towns of Euboea were destroyed by a Sicily force,Norwich, John Julius. Byzantium: The Decline and Fall (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996) p. 116 while Chalcis was burned down by the Venetians in 1171. During the 13th century, the Greek element of the island was strengthened by the Byzantine Emperor Michael Palaiologos.Γερογιάννη, Ευαγγελία. (2013). Οι Τοπικές Ενδυμασίες της Εύβοιας: Παρελθόν – Παρόν. University of Ioannina. p. 24.
Euboea came into prominence following the Fourth Crusade. In the partition of the Byzantine Empire by the crusaders after 1204, the island was occupied by a number of Lombardy families, who divided it into three baronies, the Triarchy of Negroponte; each barony was split in 1216, giving six sestiere. The island's rulers came early on under the influence of the Venetian Republic, which secured control of the island's commerce in the War of the Euboeote Succession (1256–1258) and gradually expanded its control, until they acquired full sovereignty by 1390.
On 12 July 1470, during the Ottoman–Venetian War of 1463–1479 and after a protracted and bloody siege, the well-fortified city of Negroponte (Chalcis) was wrested from Venice by Mehmed II and the whole island fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The Doge Francesco Morosini besieged the city in 1688, but was forced to withdraw after three months.
Albanians started settling Euboea gradually, since 1402, encouraged by the Venetians. In 1425, a total of 10,000 Albanians from various regions were settled in Euboea. A further indeterminate number of Albanians settled in the island in 1435. These Albanians intermingled with the local Greeks of the island. A contemporary report (1687) notes that in 1471 Greeks had abandoned the island and by 1687 almost all of the island was inhabited by Albanians. This is not corroborated in other reports, so it likely presents a doubtful depiction of the demographic situation in the island. According to Johann Georg Von Hahn (1854), Albanians were present in all of the cities of southern Euboea, excluding the town of Karystos, which was inhabited solely by Greeks. According to Hahn, the Albanians numbered 25,000 in south Euboea, out of the total population of 72,368 of the island as a whole.
The Greek inhabitants of south Euboea spoke a certain dialect related to Old Athenian. This dialect was spoken in Kymi, Avlonari, Konistres, Aliveri, Karystos and other places.Παντελίδης, Νικόλαος (2016). Tο παλαιοαθηναϊκό ιδίωμα: Πηγές, μαρτυρίες, χαρακτηριστικά. Glossologia: University of Athens. p. 24. "Η γλωσσική ποικιλία της Αθήνας (και της Αττικής γενικά) εντάσσεται, όπως προαναφέρθηκε, σε μια ομάδα μαζί με τα ιδιώματα της Αίγινας, των Μεγάρων και της νοτιότερης Εύβοιας (Κύμη, Αυλωνάρι, Κονίστρες, Αλιβέρι, Κάρυστος κ.λπ.)
Although the name Negroponte remained current in European languages until the 19th century, the Turks themselves called the city and the island Eğriboz or Ağriboz after the Euripos Strait. Under Ottoman rule, Ağriboz was the seat of a sanjak that also encompassed much of Continental Greece.
At the conclusion of the Greek War of Independence in 1830, the island returned to Greece and constituted a part of the newly established independent Greek kingdom.
Beginning in late 1943, 1,000 Greek Jews were smuggled from Salonika and Athens via the island by the Greek Resistance and British MI11 to Çeşme in neutral Turkey, thereby escaping the Holocaust in Greece.
Euboea is linked to the mainland by two bridges, one that runs through Chalcis and is also accessible from Thebes, and another which bypasses Chalcis and is accessed from Athens. All of Euboea's modern bridges are suspended.
In the 1980s, the Dystos lake was filled with grass which was set on fire by farmers to make more farmland. This act caused devastation of much of the plants and the environment in that area. A part of the lake later regenerated. Also the municipalities of Anthidona and Avlida in the mid to late 20th century, which once were part of Boeotia, reverted to Chalcis. Since then, the postal codes have corresponded with the rest of Euboea, including Skyros.
A week-long major forest fire in 2021 destroyed over 50,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land in the north of the island, one of the largest forest fires in modern Greek history.
Based on the records of the 2nd century AD geographer Pausanias, it is suspected that the Titan god Crius is an indigenous deity.
|
|
