Kallithea, Lemnos

Kallithea (Greek: Καλλιθέα meaning great view), accented forms: Kallithéa and Kalithéa is a village in the Greek island of Limnos, and is the seat of Nea Koutali. Its 2001 population was 138 for the village and the municipal district. The older name was Sarpi (Σαρπί)

Nearest places

*Karpasi, northeast
*Nea Koutali, southwest (distance: 1 km)
*Livadochori, northwest (distance: 2 km)

Population

Geography

Much of the area are barren, farmlands are within the village. The island's airport is 3 km northeast and 5 km by road.

Location and origin of the name Sarpi

Kallithea is amphitheatrically built in a slope on a low hill 800 m from the Gulf of Moudros. The location has a panoramic view as much as the gulf and north to Samothraki and Imroz (Imbros), an island in Turkey. Due to that location, it was renamed to Kallithea in 1955, its origin of the name Sarpi was Turkish.

Once read as Sarpin was mentioned in a census writing in 1361. The toponym does not have a Turkish origin. The ancient name and also one fro the few Mycenean name which survives in Lemnos. Concentrically with Mycenean writings includes the words "sa-pi-de: box", from which the word derives into these Ancient Greek words "sarpis (i)" ("σαρπίς (η)") and "sarpos (i)" ("σάρπος (η)"): "kivotos" ("κιβωτός") and one meaning: wooden settleemnt. The word survives into the Pontic dialect as "sarpin (to)" ("") rural : and also with a word "sarpokoilis" ("σαρποκοίλης"): of that had a large valley as the shawl.

The older name of the village in a communal writing in the 19th century meant with the other folk press "Sarpi" ("Σαρπή") and another with a word form "Sarpion" ("Σαρπίον") it received into an exact word in the only worthy toponym fossil the remainder without much digging dried in 1955.

Older, the village was built eastward into the Agios Georgios Bay, its residents resettled and relocated from damages and destruction from pirates and a swampy location. It was not famous about the resettling into the present day location. In 1739 Pococke mentioned that Sarpi was a large village on the west coast of Moudros, also in 1785 on a map of the French tourist Choiseul-Gouffier.

19th century

It had 66 military enlisted men in 1856 which paid 1,058 gros to leave the army. In 1858, German archeologist Conze visited the area and mentioned in the map as "Sarpi". 50 families lived in 1863 and 55 in1874. The same year had 63 houses and was part of the municipality (koli) of Kondia.

The village residents received a agent into a regional council. Inasmuch it was located in the center of a part of the island, ran an area with a communal doctor from 1874.

The Paleologiki school

The "Sarpi Paleologiki School" first opened in 1868, the first instructive school on the island except the capital, with the dancer "Douka Palaiologou" (1790-1870), a relative of the capgain family descended from Sarpi and made a safe house in England.

With the exception of the instructors, the running of the school built a house for a student, a race horse for the best students from other countries, a baker and an oven. For the use of the school, it deposited 1,500 liras, from those paid for the salary of the student. The property was given every years into the school trustees of his son Ioanni from Manchester.

The student population rose to 60 students and 10 others, it had 200 kids in 1890, the other salary received 7,000 gros and was rival of the student property of the island capital Kastro.

In 1896, it played and came to from London, in which the Palaiologos' company had financial failures, the school spending was spent by Garofallos Theodosiou with 24 twentyfold money for theaa years (1896-99). Theodosios was a cotton trader in Egypt in which his wodk did not gave him luck. The cotton factory was burnt in 1904 and was bankrupt.

The school had several students famous graduates includes Theodosios Georgiadis (1899-1905), Stavros Hasapis (1905-10), Georgios Symeon (1916-27), Athanassios Papachristou (1927-35), Leonidas Veliaroutis (1938-47), Spyros Moustakas (1942-45), Dimitiros Amditis (1925-71), Anastasios Doukakaros (1976-80), Paraskevas Vagios (1987-90), etc.

Modern history

Sarpi finally joined Greece in 1913 after the Balkan Wars. Sarpi became an independent commune in 1918. In the interwar years, it saw a small growth. It recorded 381 inhabitants in 1928, mos of these work in rural sector especially with cotton, tree planters, beautifully and fruitly.

In 1927-39, the school became two-grade and built a screen for the help of legatee Alexandros Ioannidis (1866-1919) where he built a bouse and lived in Sarpi as a of the school. It later ran as a one-grade in 1990 and closed down. From 2001, the school building functions today as a kindergarten school.

After the war, its population emigrated to other cities and developed nations, it had 399 in 1951 and fell to 218 50 years later (2001) but slowly recuperated from 1981. The few younster of the villages are councilled into the Agios Georgios Cultural Countil in which the last received a booy by L. Veliaroutia "I Kallithea (Sarpi) Limnos and its Paleologiki School".

ee also

*List of places in the Lesbos prefecture
*Administrative divisions of the Lesbos prefecture

Sources

*"Tourptsoglou-Stefanidou Vassiliki, "Voyages and Geographical Sources From Lemnos Island (15th-20th Centuries)" ("Ταξιδιωτικά και γεωγραφικά κείμενα για τη νήσο Λήμνο (15ος-20ος αιώνας)" = "Taxidiotika ke geografika kimena yia ti niso Limno (15os-20os eonas)")
*Belitsos, Theodoros, "Lemnos and its villages" by Th. Belitsos 1994.
*"Lemnos/Limnos Province CD Rom" ("Cdrom Επαρχείου Λήμνου" = "CD Rom Eparcheiou Limnou"): "Lovable Lemnos"
*L. Veliaroutis "I Kallithea (Sarpi) Limnou and its Paleologiki School" 2007

External links

* [http://www.gtp.gr/LocPage.asp?id=8126 Kallithea at the GTP Travel Pages]
*Map and aerial photos:
**Street map information from: [http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=decimal&latitude=39.901&longitude=25.1124&zoom=6 Mapquest] , [http://local.live.com/mapz.aspx?&lats1=39.901&longs=25.1546124&alts1=35 LiveLocal] or [http://maps.google.com/maps?||=39.901,25.1124 Google] or [http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?lat=39.901&lon=25.1124&mag=2 Yahoo! Maps]
**Satellite
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.901,25.11246&spn=0.11,0.18&t=k Google] or [http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=39.901|25.1124&5style=h&lvl=15&v=1 Microsoft Virtual Earth] - image now available
*Kontias coordinates are: coord|37|54|5|N|21|12|45|E|type:city(218)_region:GR