Samos (city)

This article covers the Greek city of Samos. For more meanings, see Samos (disambiguation) .

Samos Municipality Δημοτική Κοινότητα Σαμίων (Σάμος)
Basic data
Country	Greece
region	North Aegean
Regional district	Samos
local community	Anatoliki Samos
Parish	Vathy
status	Borough
Geographic coordinates	37 ° 45 ′  N , 26 ° 58 ′  E Coordinates: 37 ° 45 ′  N , 26 ° 58 ′  E
Height above d. M.	20  m (average)
surface	9.372 km²
Residents	6251 (2011)
LAU-1 code no.	56010101
Local division	10 settlements and uninhabited islands
Post Code	83100
Telephone code	22730
View of Samos

The city of Samos ( Greek Σάμος ( f. Sg. )) Is the center of the Greek island of Samos . Together with Vathy it forms an almost closed settlement area. According to the 2011 census, the city had 6191 inhabitants, together with the surrounding settlements 6251. In everyday language usage of the population, the old distinction Kato Vathy (Κάτω Βαθύ 'Under Vathy') for Samos and Ano Vathy (Άνω Βαθύ 'Upper Vathy') Long preserved for Vathy , but is used less and less today. The city is the administrative seat of the municipality of Anatoliki Samos .

location

The urban area occupies an area of ​​9,372 km² in the northeast of the island. It extends around the apex of the Gulf of Vathy ( Kolpos Vatheos , Κόλπος Βαθέος) and on its east side including the entire area to the settlements of Asprochorti , Agia Paraskevi and Galazio on the north coast and the islands off the Nisi peninsula . To the northeast, the ridge runs through the urban area with heights of around 250 to over 400 m. The settlement area of ​​the small town of Vathy borders almost seamlessly to the southeast of the city center. The village of Vathy (Δημοτική Κοινότητα Βαθέος) surrounds the urban area of ​​Samos on all sides. The city center is near the apex of the Gulf of Vathy . The urban development follows the shoreline, rises gradually inland and merges in the north along the gulf in a narrow and steep coastal strip into the Kalami district .

history

The origins of the city of Samos are closely related to Vathy . The area of ​​today's Samos was then called Gialos (Γιαλός, "coast") and was only the port of Vathy . With the end of the pirate attacks, more and more people settled on the coast. Including traders from the Ionian Islands . Large warehouses were built and slowly the settlement developed. To distinguish the old place Pano Vathy (Πάνω Βαθύ) or Chorio (Χωριό), the newly created Kato Vathy (Κάτω Βαθύ) or Limin Vatheos (Λιμήν Βαθέος) was named. After the end of the Greek Revolution , the island of Samos was denied accession to the Kingdom of Greece in the London Protocol . In return, the Ottoman Empire had to make concessions. Samos became a tributary Christian principality of the Sublime Porte . The administrator ( Bey ) appointed by the Sultan had to be of Greek nationality and was under the protection of France, England and Russia. The administrator of the island, Stefan Bogoridi , appointed in 1834, renamed Limin Vatheos to Stefanoupolis (Στεφανούπολις) in the same year and made it the capital until the end of his rule in 1849. Then the administrative center moved to Chora until 1854 . In the early summer of 1854 the new governor Ioannis Gikas decided to move the capital back to the sea in Limin Vatheos (Λιμήν Βαθέος). Therefore, a short time later, the planning for the expansion of the port, the embankment and a central square, the Platia Pythagoras , began. From 1870 to the beginning of the 20th century, numerous public buildings were erected in the neoclassical style , which gave the city a uniformly closed image. It developed into the administrative center on the Gulf of Vathy . In addition, an industrial area with large warehouses, small tanneries and a mill was built to the west. From 1893 to 1914 there was a French mail steamer agency for which some postage stamps in piastres with Vathy were issued.

Postage stamp from 1894 for the French mail steamer agency Vathy.

Declaration of union with Greece on November 11, 1912 in front of the church of Agios Spiridon

After unification with the Kingdom of Greece in 1913, Samos lost the status of an island capital, but became the administrative seat of the prefecture, which also included the islands of Ikaria and Fourni . The administrative importance gained and the port prompted many people to settle here. New districts (Neapoli, Kalami, Koutra) emerged on the hillside east of the city. In addition, many refugees from Asia Minor settled here after 1922 . Tobacco processing gained importance between the world wars. Several factories with warehouses were built. In Malagari , west of Samos , the Samos wine cooperative (Ένωσης Οινοποιητικών Συνεταιρισμών Σάμου) has been operating a winery since 1934 .

During the Italian occupation in World War II , the city became the seat of the Italian armed forces. A German squadron bombed the city on November 17, 1943, destroying many of the buildings that dominated the cityscape on the promenade. After the war, the reconstruction of the destroyed buildings began. The solutions were based on a uniform modernization in the style of the large urban centers of the 1950s and 1960s. The result changed the characteristic cityscape. Hotel Xenia was built on the site of the Governor's Palace. Modern apartment buildings were built in other places in the center.

Under the then informal name Limin Vatheos ( Λιμήν Βαθέος 'Port of Vathy' ), the city became the seat of the eponymous municipality in 1918 ( Δήμος Λιμένος Βαθέος Dímos Liménos Vathéos ), which was renamed Samos in 1958. Agia Paraskevi 1940 as well as Asprochorti and Galazio 1981 were recognized as settlements and connected to the community, the 1961 recognized settlement Kalami 1981 integrated as a district. The municipality of Samos ( Δήμος Σαμίων Dímos Samíon ) was merged with eight rural communities (Greek κοιν ( τητες ) to form the municipality of Vathy ( Δήμος Βαθέος Dímos Vathéos ) with the city of Samos as the administrative seat. The four island communities created at that time were merged by the Kallikratis program decided in 2010 to form the community of Samos and the city as its administrative seat. Since the separation of the island into two municipalities in 2019, the city has been the administrative seat of the newly created municipality of Anatoliki Samos .

Population development of Samos

Surname	Greek name	1913	1920	1928	1940	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001	2011
Samos	Σάμος	6627	6143	8636	7115	5970	5469	5146	5275	5792	6236	6191
Agia Paraskevi	Αγία Παρασκευή				0024	0037	0025th	0010	0038	0005	0009	0026th
Kalami	Καλάμι						0248	0325
Asprochorti	Ασπροχόρτι									0009	0015th	0011
Galazio	Γαλάζιο									0018th	0015th	0023
total			6143	8636	7143 *	6007	5742	5481	5613	5824	6275	6251

* including Kotsikas with 4 residents

Public facilities

The great kouros of Samos in the Samos Archaeological Museum

• Seat of various administrative levels
• military supreme command of Samos (Στρατιωτικής Διοίκησης Σάμου)
• Police Directorate (Αστυνομικής Διεύθυνσης)
• Prefecture Hospital (Νομαρχιακό Νοσοκομείο)
• Samos Historical Archive and Public Library

Cultural institutions

• Seat of the Metropolitan of Samos and Ikaria (Μητροπολίτη Σάμου και Ικαρίας)
• Museums

• The Samos Archaeological Museum is housed in two buildings. It is one of the most important museums on the Aegean Islands and mainly shows finds from the Heraion area of ​​Samos . The small finds are housed in the old building (built in 1912). In the new building, which was built in 1987 with financial support from the Volkswagen Foundation , numerous Kouros statues are on display, including a. the largest in Greece.
• The Byzantine Museum exclusively shows ecclesiastical art from the 15th to 19th centuries, such as icons, chasuble, crucifixes and books.

port

Due to its location at the end of the gulf, Samos has one of the safest ports in the Aegean. Five ships can dock at the same time at the 150 m long pier. There is also an area for fishing and sailing boats. The ferry companies Hellenic Seaways and GA Ferries operate the daily connections with Piraeus via the Cyclades and Ikaria.

Web links

• Website of the municipality (English)
• History of Samos (Greek)
• General information about the island of Samos (English)

literature

• Κεντρική Ένωση Δήμων και Κοινοτήτων Ελλάδας, Ελληνική Εταιρία Τοπικής Ανάπτυξης και Αυτοδιοίκησης (ed.): Sanakirja Διοικητικών Μεταβολών των Δή microns ων και Κοινοτήτων (1912-2001) . 1/2 (Τόμος Α, α – κ). Athens 2002, ISBN 960-7509-47-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ National Statistical Service of Greece (ΕΣΥΕ) according to 2001 census , p. 116 (PDF, 793 kB)
2. ↑ Results of the 2011 census, Greek Statistical Office (ΕΛ.ΣΤΑΤ) ( Memento from June 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (Excel document, 2.6 MB)
3. ↑ Alexandra Yerolympos: New Patterns of Urban Development in the Aegean Islands, 1850-1920s . In: Anna Frangoudaki, Çağlar Keyder (ed.): Ways to modernity in Greece and Turkey: encounters with Europe, 1850–1950 . IBTauris, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84511-289-9 , pp. 249 .
4. ↑ Λεξικό ∆ιοικητικών Μεταβολών των ∆ή µ ων και Κοινοτήτων (1912-2001) . tape  2 , 2002, p. 38 ( Λιμήν Βαθέος - Σάμος, Μετονομασίες των οικισμών της Ελλάδας - Greek, English).
5. ↑ Λεξικό ∆ιοικητικών Μεταβολών των ∆ή µ ων και Κοινοτήτων (1912-2001) . tape  2 , 2002, p. 397 .
6. ↑ Λεξικό ∆ιοικητικών Μεταβολών των ∆ή µ ων και Κοινοτήτων (1912-2001) . tape  1 , 2002, p. 162 .
7. ↑ Population of Samos 1913-2001, Greek Statistical Office ELSTAT, Digital Library (Greek)