Litochoro

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Statistics
Prefecture: Pieria
Location:
Latitude:
Longitude:

41.10133/41°6'7" N lat.
22.502/22°30'13" E long
Population: (2001)
 - Total
 - Density¹
 - Rank

  63,774

 
Elevation:
 -lowest:
 -centre:
 -highest:

Thermian Gulf
293 m (centre)
southwestern part
Postal code: 602 00
Area/distance code: 11-30-Greece dialing code 23510 (0030-23310)-2 through 9
with some exceptions
Municipal code: 4208
Car designation: KN (Katerini)
3-letter abbreviation: LTH Lit'ochoron
Address of administration: 15 Agiou Nikolaou St.
Litochori 602 00

Litochoro, Litohoro (Greek, Modern: Λιτόχωρο, Ancient/Katharevoussa -on), older forms Litochoron, Litohoron and Litokhoron is a town and a municipality located in the southern part of the prefecture of Pieria and is the second largest community in Pieria. Litochoro is situated at the eastern foot of Mount Olympus and west of the Thermian gulf. The first recording of Litochoro is when Aghios Dionysos visited Mount Olympus The climbing routes of Olympus begins southwest of Litochoro. Litochoro since the 1960s serves an interchange with GR-1/E75 to its east. In the mid-1990s, the superhighway added 2 additional lanes to the undivided superhighway. Its nearest beach is 5 km east. Litochoro is located S of Katerini, SSW of Thessaloniki, N of Larissa, WNW of Athens and E of Tyrnavos and the world-famous Mount Olympus.

Geography and Information

Pine, cedar and fir trees as part of the Olympian forests lie to the southwest and northwest. Grasslands are around Litochoro sporadically, farms dominate the east. Litochoro also has several restaurants and cafeterias. Some of the most popular are "Erato", "To Tzaki", "Liangkas", "Bouros". Litochoro serves bus routes to Katerini. South of the town of Litochoro there is an extended area, which spreads from the roots of Olympus until the beach of Pieria, and is called Plaka. It is an area in which there are plenty of luxurious villas, cottages as well as Hotels and beach bars, most of which operate during Summer period.

Historical facts

  • Litochoro was built on the site of ancient Pimpleia.
  • Litochoro was the centre of the revolt in Macedonia in 1878.
  • The third and final phase of the Greek Civil War started when Communist forces attacked and invaded Litochoro on March 31, 1946 which was the first post-World War II election day. Twelve policemen and soldiers were killed.
  • Litochoro became quite famous during the 1999 NATO war in Yugoslavia when allied naval forces arrived in the beach of Gritsa; an action which produced the reaction of town's Communists. The event had been broadcast live by the CNN.

Other

Litochoro has schools, lyceums, gymnasia, banks, a post office, a port, a sporting centre, a train station (Athens - Lamia - Thessaloniki) and squares (plateies). Litochoro has two major churches, Agios Nikolaos in the central and south and Agios Dimitrios in the North.

Personalities

  • Nickolaos Vlachopoulos, mariner; hero in the 1912-1913 wars
  • Michael Kofos, mariner; hero of 1912-1913 wars
  • Vasilios Geroliolios (1913-1996), priest
  • Giorgos Papathanasiou, local politician, present Mayor of Litochoro (1984-today)
  • Nikolaos Kakalos, politician, former Member of the Greek Parliament for Pieria Region.

Historical population

Year Population Change Municipal population
1981 6,157 - -
1991 6,667 510/-8.28% 6,864
2001 - - -

Litochoro is one of the few municipalities that have the majority of the population living in one town. 197 or 2.95% live outside the town.

External links


See also

References


A portion of content for this article is credited to Wikipedia. Content under GNU Free Documentation License(GFDL)