Siderokausia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gold Sultani , minted in Siderokausia, AH 926 (1519/20 CE)

Siderokausia ( Greek Σιδηροκαύσια Ottoman Turkish : Sidrekap [i] si , including: Mademochoria , Μαντεμοχώρια < Turkish maggots = mine + Greek χωριό = village, "Mine villages") were silver - and gold mines -villages that during the Byzantine and Ottoman period in the northeast the Chalkidiki peninsula in northern Greece . In Ottoman times, a mint was also connected to the mines.

history

The area, which first appears as Siderokausia in the records of the 9th century , is located in the northeast of Chalkidiki, near today's Stratoniki . After the Ottoman conquest of the region in the early 15th century, the area flourished again. At peak times, between 500 and 600 smelting furnaces were in operation to produce lead and zinc . Until 1705, the Ottoman sultans granted the twelve mining villages of Mademochoria extensive autonomy and privileges in exchange for paying a twelfth of the annual silver production. The English traveler William Martin Leake reports that the supervision of the mines, together with the government of the twelve villages (in Leake: ελευθεροχώρια, "Free Villages") was under an official who was called Madem aghasi . The twelve villages were called "Anthemounta" (today Galatista ), Vavdos , Riana , Stanos , Varvara , Liaringova (today Arnaia ), Novoselo (today Neochori ), Machalas ( Stageira ), Isvoro (today Stratoniki), Chorouda, Revenikia (today Megali Panagia) ) and Ierissos .

The ma'den-i Sidrekapsi mine was particularly large:

"" ... It was by far the most productive mine in the Balkans in the first half of the 16th century ... employed around 6,000 miners ... Its total production was estimated at around 6 tons per year ... ""

The affiliated mint was in operation from 1530 to the 18th or even 19th century and produced silver akçe and golden sultanis . For the sultanis it was even one of the three main mints in the Ottoman Empire, next to Cairo and Istanbul .

The Mademochoria received their privileged status until they participated in the Greek War of Independence in 1821. The fruitless uprising led to the billeting of no fewer than 10,000 soldiers in the region to protect the mines, while the villages had to pay for their housing. The mines then got into a crisis and were ultimately taken over by a French- Ottoman consortium, the Compagnie des Mines de Kassandra from Paris . In 1893 the company received the mining rights for antimony , lead and manganese . A multi-national work force of 6,000 men was again employed for the approximately 600 blast furnaces.

In 1920, the mines were from the "Anonymous Greek Chemical Products and Fertilizer Company" ( Greek Ανώνυμη Ελληνική Εταιρεία Χημικών Προϊόντων & Λιπασμάτων, ΑΕΕΧΠ & Λιπασμάτων acquired), partly to the stocks of sulfites to win for fertilizer production. At that time, the main loading point was in what is now the village of Stratoni , where the ores were delivered by a 6 km long Decauville railway. In 1932 this system was replaced by a cable car . After the Greco-Turkish War ( persecution of the Greeks in the Ottoman Empire 1914–1923 ) Greek refugees from the village of Balya Karaydın in Asia Minor were settled in temporary accommodation in Stratoni. After the earthquake in Ierissos in 1932 , the settlement was rebuilt and today's village was created.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Η ιστορία των μεταλλείων. (The History of the Mines) Aristotelis Municipality October 14, 2016.
  2. ^ William Martin Leake : Travels in Northern Greece. , Vol. III, J. Rodwell, London 1835: 159-161.
  3. ↑ "... by far the most productive of the Balkan mines during the first half of the sixteenth century ... employing as many as 6,000 miners ... Its total output has been estimated at about six tons per year ..." . Sevket Pamuk: A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge 2000: 37th ISBN 0-521-44197-8
  4. ↑ mindat.org

literature

  • O. Davies: Ancient Mines in Southern Macedonia. In: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 62, Jan. – Jun., 1932: 140 (doi | 10.2307 / 2843882)
  • Speros Vryonis, Jr .: The Question of the Byzantine Mines. In: Speculum 37, 1: 13-14; Jan. 1962. (doi | 10.2307 / 2850595)

Coordinates: 40 ° 31 ′ 0 ″  N , 23 ° 47 ′ 0 ″  E