Argyroupoli (Rethymno)
Argyroupoli (Greek Αργυρούπολη ) is a mountain village on the Greek Mediterranean island of Crete. It belongs to the municipality of Lappa the Municipality of Rethymno. The name means Argyroupoli Silver City ( άργυρος argyros = silver and πόλη poli = city). The village lies at an altitude of 260 meters above average sea level and has 403 inhabitants (as of 2011). According to the census of 1981 at that time were still 453 inhabitants resident. Argyroupoli was built on the territory of the ancient city of Lappa, bear witness to the various places in the village finds.
Location
The place was Argyroupoli to the Greek government reform in 2010 (part of the Kallikratis program ) within the community Lappa with the main town of Episkopi. The village belonged to the prefecture of Rethymno and bordered to the west by the regional prefecture of Chania. The former prefectural boundaries are now the boundaries of the regional districts of the Region of Crete, Argyroupoli heard it as part of the city of Rethymno Rethymno Prefecture to the regional. The city center of Rethymno is 16 km to the northeast.
The settlement area Argyroupolis nestles on the northwestern slope of Mt AZONA above the fertile plain of the Mouselas ( Μουσέλας ), a small river that flows towards the North Coast. This is about 7 miles away, to the south coast behind the Krioneritis mountain range is about 11 kilometers. Along the river in the west of the village runs the regional district boundary. The village consists of an upper and a lower, southwestern district. About 50 meters below the local development are the Agia Dynami, ten sources of Mouselas whose water was used in the past for the operation of mills, including mills from the 19th century. Today, there are cafes for visitors to the resort. Besides tourism, the inhabitants of Argyroupoli living from sales of olive oil, quality wine, citrus fruits, and grains.
History
In the area of today's Argyroupoli was in ancient times, the town of Lappa (also Lampa, Lampai or lamp). Its history dates back to the late geometric period of ancient Greece, from the origin of the earliest finds. Archaeological findings According Lappa experienced its heyday in the late Hellenistic and early Roman period, when an estimated 10,000 inhabitants settled in the territory of the polis Lappa. In the city, coins, with designs such as dolphin and trident, but also gods like Apollo, Athena and Britomartis, testify to the importance of the polis.
A first turning point in the development of the city meant the Roman conquest of the independent Lappa 67 BC by Quintus Caecilius Metellus, in which there was considerable destruction. Under the reign of the emperor Augustus, to the inhabitants of the polis had supported in the Roman civil war, Lappa was after 31 BC recognized as civitas libera. Middle of the 4th century AD the city was destroyed by an earthquake. In and around Argyroupoli are building foundations, remains of buildings, a floor mosaic from the 3rd century AD and a necropolis in the area Lamaniana, northeast of the village on a tributary of the River Petre ( Πετρές ), obtained from the time Lappas. Numerous finds of the ancient polis located in the Archaeological Museum of Rethymno.
In Byzantine times Lappa was first bishopric. The bishops of the city took part in the Ecumenical Councils of Ephesus (431 ) and Chalcedon ( 451). After the Arab occupation of Crete 824 and the re- conquest by Nicephorus Phocas 960/961 the bishopric was moved to Kalamona. The area of Argyroupoli the family received Chortatzis as a fief. After a revolt against the ruling by the Venetians in 1204, when the place was a stronghold of the rebels, awarded to the fief in 1299 to the archons Alexis Kallergis. Argyroupoli was called at that time in memory of the town of Lappa Stim Polis ( Στίμπολις ), which means, in the city ' ( Modern Greek: στην πόλη ) means later even Polis ( Πόλις ' city ' ). From the Venetian period some villas of the landowners are still preserved and inhabited, others were, as well as remnants of ancient Lappa, reused as building material building today.
From the Ottoman period from 1645/46 the names Gaidouropoli and Samaropoli for the present site Argyroupoli have survived. It was not until the first half of the 19th century the village under Argyroupoli is known. In 1822 the village was given this name during the Greek uprising against Ottoman rule ( 1821-1829 ) through the Cretan " revolutionary committee ". Since Crete remained under Ottoman rule, it came in the same century to further surveys of the population against foreign rule, in which the " General Assembly" of the insurgents both 1867 and 1878 in Argyroupoli building as its headquarters. In April 1867, the village was destroyed by the Ottomans in the fight against the uprising. In the uprising of 1878 was destroyed an Ottoman command post in Argyroupoli and collected by the Cretans, the decision to union with Greece, but at this time was not feasible.