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Silver drachma of Larissa (410-405 BC). Head of the nymph Larissa left, wearing pearl earring, her hair bound in sakkos / ΛΑΡΙΣΑ above, [IA] below (retrograde), bridled horse -symbol of the city- galloping right.
Pre-history[edit]
Traces of Paleolithic human settlement have been recovered from the area, but it was peripheral to areas of advanced culture. The area around Larissa was extremely fruitful; it was agriculturally important and in antiquity was known for its horses.
The name Larissa (Λάρισα Lárīsa) is in origin a Pelasgian word for "fortress".[citation needed] There were many ancient Greek cities with this name.
The name of Thessalian Larissa is first recorded in connection with the aristocratic Aleuadai family. It was also a polis (city-state).
Classical Age[edit]
Larissa was a polis (city-state) during the Classical Era. Larissa is thought to be where the famous Greek physician Hippocrates and the famous philosopher Gorgias of Leontini died.
Coinage of Thessaly, possibly king Hellokrates, with portrait of Aleuas. Obv: head of Aleuas facing slightly left, wearing conical helmet, ALEU to right; labrys behind. Rev: Eagle standing right, head left, on thunderbolt; ELLA to left, LARISAYA to right. Thessaly, Larissa. c. 370–360 BC.
When Larissa ceased minting the federal coins it shared with other Thessalian towns and adopted its coinage in the late fifth century BC, it chose local types for its coins. The obverse depicted the nymph of the local spring, Larissa, for whom the town was named; probably the choice was inspired by the famous coins of Kimon depicting the Syracusan nymph Arethusa. The reverse depicted a horse in various poses. The horse was an appropriate symbol of Thessaly, a land of plains, which was well known for its horses. Usually, there is a male figure; he should perhaps be seen as the eponymous hero of the Thessalians, Thessalos, who is probably also to be identified on many of the earlier, federal coins of Thessaly.
The first ancient theatre of the city. It was constructed inside the ancient city's centre during the reign of Antigonus II Gonatas towards the end of the third century BC. The theatre was in use for six centuries, until the end of the third century AD.
Pedestrian zone beside the First Ancient Greek theatre
Ruins of the second ancient theatre
Larissa, sometimes written Larisa on ancient coins and inscriptions, is near the site of the Homeric Argissa. It appears in early times, when Thessaly was mainly governed by a few aristocratic families, as an important city under the rule of the Aleuadae, whose authority extended over the whole district of Pelasgiotis. This powerful family possessed for many generations before 369 BC the privilege of furnishing the Tagus, the local term for the strategos of the combined Thessalian forces. The principal rivals of the Aleuadae were the Scopadae of Crannon, the remains of which are about 14 miles southwest.
Larissa was the birthplace of Meno, who thus became, along with Xenophon and a few others, one of the generals leading several thousands of Greeks from various places, in the ill-fated expedition of 401 (retold in Xenophon's Anabasis) meant to help Cyrus the Younger, son of Darius II, king of Persia, overthrow his elder brother Artaxerxes II and take over the throne of Persia (Meno is featured in Plato's dialogue bearing his name, in which Socrates uses the example of "the way to Larissa" to help explain to Meno the difference between true opinion and science (Meno, 97a–c); this "way to Larissa" might well be on the part of Socrates an attempt to call to Meno's mind a "way home", understood as the way toward one's true and "eternal" home reached only at death, that each man is supposed to seek in his life).
The constitution of the town was democratic, which explains why it sided with Athens in the Peloponnesian War. A festival celebrated near Larissa resembled the Roman Saturnalia, and at which the slaves were waited on by their masters. As the chief city of ancient Thessaly, Larissa was taken by the Thebans and later directly annexed by Philip II of Macedon in 344. It remained under Macedonian control afterwards, except for a brief period when Demetrius Poliorcetes captured it in 302 BC.
It was in Larissa that Philip V of Macedon signed in 197 BC a treaty with the Romans after his defeat at the Battle of Cynoscephalae, and it was there also that Antiochus III the Great, won a great victory in 192 BC. In 196 BC Larissa became an ally of Rome and was the headquarters of the Thessalian League.
Larissa is frequently mentioned in connection with the Roman civil wars which preceded the establishment of the Roman Empire and Pompey sought refuge there after the defeat of Pharsalus.
Middle Ages[edit]
Remains of the Basilica of St. Achillios, destroyed during the Ottoman era
Gravure of Larissa, c. 1820
The archaeological excavations on Frourio Hill, with the Bezesten of Larissa in the background
A street in the Frourio quarter
Larissa was sacked by the Ostrogoths in the late 5th century, and rebuilt under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.
In the eighth century, the city became the metropolis of the theme of Hellas. The city was captured in 986 by Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, who carried off the relics of its patron saint, Saint Achilleios, to Prespa. It was again unsuccessfully besieged by the Italo-Normans under Bohemond I in 1082/3.
After the Fourth Crusade, the King of Thessalonica, Boniface of Montferrat, gave the city to Lombard barons, but they launched a rebellion in 1209 that had to be subdued by the Latin Emperor Henry of Flanders himself. The city was recovered by Epirus soon after.
Ottoman period[edit]
Larissa was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1386/87 and again in the 1390s, but only came under permanent Ottoman control in 1423, by Turahan Bey. Under the Ottoman rule, the city was known as Yeni-şehir i-Fenari, "new citadel". As the chief town and military base of Ottoman Thessaly, Larissa was a predominantly Muslim city. In 1521 (Hijri 927) the town had 693 Muslim and 75 Christian households; according to Gökbilgin (1956), it also included Albanian and Jewish communities. During Ottoman rule the administration of the Metropolis of Larissa was transferred to nearby Trikala where it remained until 1734, when Metropolitan Iakovos II returned the see from Trikala to Larissa and established the present-day metropolis of Larissa and Tyrnavos.
The town was noted for its trade fair in the 17th and 18th centuries, while the seat of the pasha of Thessaly was also transferred there in 1770. Larissa was the headquarters of Hursid Pasha during the Greek War of Independence. It was also renowned for its mosques, medrese, and bedestens. However, many of these buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1882 and others were demolished. Larissa had twenty-seven or twenty-eight mosques in 1880, while at the beginning of twentieth century, probably only nine were still standing. Eight were likely demolished in the twentieth century leaving only the Yeni Mosque.
The city remained a part of the Ottoman Empire until Thessaly became part of the independent Kingdom of Greece in 1881, except for a period when Ottoman forces re-occupied it during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. In the late 19th century, there was still a small village on the outskirts of the town inhabited by Africans from Sudan, a curious remnant of the forces collected by Ali Pasha.
In the 19th century, the town produced leather, cotton, silk and tobacco. Fevers and agues were prevalent owing to bad drainage and the overflowing of the river; and the death rate was higher than the birth rate.[dubious – discuss]
Modern Greek era[edit]
Old postcard of the city, Alexandras Street, 1910
In 1881, the city, along with the rest of Thessaly, was incorporated into the Kingdom of Greece during the prime ministry of Alexandros Koumoundouros. On 31 August 1881, a unit of the Greek Army headed by General Skarlatos Soutsos entered the city. A considerable portion of the Turkish population emigrated to the Ottoman Empire at that point. In this new era, the city starts gradually to expand and to be rebuilt by the Greek authorities.
A German Messerschmitt which was crash-landed on the military airfield at Larissa, shot down by RAF pilots during WWII
During the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, the city was the headquarters of Greek Crown Prince Constantine. The flight of the Greek army from here to Farsala took place on 23 April 1897. Turkish troops entered the city two days later. After a treaty for peace was signed, they withdrew and Larissa remained permanently in Greece. This was followed by a further exodus of Turks in 1898. The Hassan Bey mosque (which was built in the early 16th century) was demolished in 1908.
During the Axis Occupation of the country, the Jewish community of the city (dated back to the 2nd century BC, see Romaniotes[citation needed]) suffered heavy losses. Today in the city there is a Holocaust memorial and a synagogue.
After WWII[edit]
The "floating river" fountain in Central Square of Larissa (Sapka, former Themidos)
After WWII the city was expanded rapidly. Today Larissa is the fourth largest Greek city with many squares, taverns and cafes. It has three public hospitals with one being a military hospital. It hosts the Hellenic Air Force Headquarters and NATO Headquarters in Greece. It has a School of Medicine and a School of Biochemistry – Biotechnology and the third largest in the country Institute of Technology. It occupies the first place among Greek cities in green coverage rate per square-metre urban space and the first place with the highest percentage of bars-taverns-restaurants per capita in Greece. It also has two public libraries and five museums.
