The Island and the Village of Kamariotissa
“Only the mountainous pyramid of Athos can compete in the Thracian Sea with the dignity of the mountain massif of Samothrace, and it is notable that they both have a similar significance in history: in antiquity, Samothrace was the Island of Pious Initiates; in more recent times Athos is the Holy Mountain of Orthodoxy. The name Samothraki (Σαμοθράκη) probably derives from the steep and impressive appearance of its mountainous bulk. The pre-Greek word samos of the first component means height, and Samothrace is the high Thrace. The Phengari (=moon) peak of the Saos mountain range, rising to 1664 m, is the highest point in the Aegean islands after Euboea and Crete . Samothrace has an area of ca. 180 sq. km and it is elliptical in shape. Until recently, the seafarer, when approaching the island, was confronted with the absence of a natural harbor.
The Kamariotissa bay, which is the present-day landing-place and Samothrace’s only anchorage, a small fishing hamlet before its modern touristic deformation, lies on the northern side of the promontory of Akrotiri and it is exposed to the northerly and northwesterly winds. This side is now protected by a breakwater, which has lately been completed. According to tradition, the name Kamariotissa comes from an icon of the Panagia (=Virgin) from the village of Kamares in the Propontis or from the monastery of the Panagia Kamariotissa on Chalki island, which was washed up on the Samothracian shore in the 17th century. After the demolition of the old (1836-7) church of Panagia Kamariotissa in order the present-day church to be constructed, part of the foundation of the apse and of the stylobates substructure of a large early Christian basilica were discovered. It dates, on the basis of the preserved architectural members, in the 5th-6th centuries.
The island, in spite of its short distance from the neighboring Thracian coast, until recently lacked regular communication with it and with the other islands; as a result, the inhabitants of Samothrace were cut off from the outside world. This isolation contributed towards the stabilization of a productive autarky, whose basic agricultural produce are olive and cereals, cultivated in the NW part of the island, where nearly the whole of the arable land lies. The population of Samothrace had gathered from the Middle Ages in Chorio (or Chora, officially Samothraki, elevation 210-250 m, ), until the beginning of the 20th century, when the decentralization and dispersion of the settlement pattern, mainly towards the SW part of the island, started. Apart from Kamariotissa, the other villages (Alonia, Xeropotamo, Lakkoma and Profitis Ilias) are inhabited by landsmen who, until lately, lived almost exclusively off agriculture and livestock.
The natives idiom, where the Aegean linguistic group meets the Thracian one, belongs to the northern Greek idioms. It occupies a particular position in the dialectology of Modern Greek, on account of its peculiarities, its vocabulary, remarkable for the Ancient Greek elements it contains as well as for the purity it exhibits, and other, secondary, linguistic phenomena.”
Photos:
1.Kamariotissa in 1948,photo by Spyros Meletzis.
2.View of Chora,photo by Nikos Desyllas.
3.Chora: medieval fortress, photo by Dimitris Matsas.
( This is an article written by D. Matsas & A. Bakirtzis published in the site of Democritos University of Thrace. Dimitris Matsas is archaeologist of the Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Thrace (Komotini).Argiris Bakirtzis is architect of the Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (Kavala).English translation by Maria Ladopoulou, Dimitris Matsas.Photographic and drawing records of ΙΘ΄ Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities (Komotini) ).
