Veligosti

Veligosti (Greek: Βελιγοστή) is a Greek settlement located around 12 km (old: 14 km) south of Megalopoli, 3 km SSE from the nearest interchange with the GR-7/E65 (Kalamata - Megalopoli - Tripoli), about 48 km northeast of Kalamata, about 4 km west of Leontari and about 40 km (old: 47 km) west-southwest of Tripoli. Veligosti is also in the municipality of Falaisia. Velgosti are connected with a road linking Tripotamo and Vasta-Sparta Road and with a poor road to Veligosti.

Nearest places

*Kotsiridi, NNE
*Leonrati, east
*Kalyvia, ESE
*Ellinitsa, south
*Paradeisia, WSE
*Tripotamo, NNW

Geography

Veligosti is situated in a valley area where it is a basin of the Alfeios River. The geography consists of farmlands that covering the village area, the remainder of the land are forested that covers much of the area, the hills cover the western and the eastern portions of the municipality. The mountains which include the Lykaio and Tsiberou can be seen to the northwest, the north and the east along with parts of Megalopoli, the mine and its power plant.

Population

History

Veligosti was first founded during the Byzantine era and the rubbles of a Byzantine settlement and a water tower are the today's location. It also had a castle.

During the Frankish period, with the "Morea Chronicle", Geoffrey I Villehardouin gained barin (one of the twelve in the Peloponnese) and four feuds. The baron was destroyed in about 1300, during the Ottoman period it lost the strategic location. The Ottoman times went to an end during the Greek War of Independence of 1821.

The highest recorded population were in the early to mid-20th century, the population has been falling since the mid-20th century, particularly after the two conflicts, the World War II and the Greek Civil War as people went for a better lifestyle and jobs elsewhere in Greece and the other parts of the world (mainly North America), its decline has rarely slowed in the late-20th century. The census between between 1991 and 2001 grew slightly. Its median age is around in the 40s range.

The census was one of the few places in Arcadia where the population did not change between 1991 and 2001.

The forest fire that ravaged the southwesternmost portion of Arcadia on Sunday August 26, 2007 that included Derveni, Chirades and Tourkoleka entered the village and burnt much of the forests to the west and some farmlands that are not groves in the area, the fire entered during the morning hours and exited during the evening hours with some slowdown by firefighters along with their vehicles, choppers and planes. The village mainly suffered minor damages to its houses.

Other

Veligosti has a church, and a square ("plateia"), its nearest school (since 2005) and lyceum (middle school) and gymnasium (secondary school) are in Megalopoli.

References

*"The Franks in the Peloponnese", H. F. Tozer, Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 4, 1883 (1883), pp. 165-236
* [http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/623369 doi:10.2307/623369]

External links

* [http://arcadia.ceid.upatras.gr/arkadia/places/veligosti.htm History and Information about Veligosti]
* http://users.hol.gr/~zeritis/
* [http://www.gtp.gr/LocPage.asp?id=8939 Kotsiridi on GTP Travel Pages]
*Map and aerial photos:
**Street map information from: [http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=decimal&latitude=37.3285&longitude=22.1244&zoom=6 Mapquest] , [http://local.live.com/map.aspx?&lats1=37.3285&lons1=22.1244&alts1=35 LiveLocal] or [http://maps.google.com/maps?||=37.3285,22.1244 Google] or [http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?lat=37.3285&lon=22.1244&mag=2 Yahoo! Maps]
**Satellite
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.3285,22.144&spn=0.11,0.18&t=k Google] or [http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=37.3285|22.1244&style=h&lvl=15&v=1 Microsoft Virtual Earth] - image now available
*Coordinates: coord|37|18|44|N|22|7|24|E|type:city(37)_region:GR

ee also

*List of settlements in the Arcadia prefecture