Ypati is a town of the enlarged Municipality of Lamia in the
Prefecture of Fthiotida, while it was the seat of the former
homonymous municipality from 1999 to the end of 2010. According to
the 2011 Census it had a population of 496 inhabitants. It is
located 22 kilometers west of Lamia, on the northern slopes of Mount
Oiti.
In the Middle Ages it was referred to as New Patras.
From 1268 it was the capital of the autonomous hegemony of Thessaly
and, between the years 1318 and 1390, it was the seat of the
crusading Duchy of New Patras.
It was later referred to as
Patratziki, a name that is also recorded in the minutes of the
Revolution of 1821, such as in the Minutes of the Assembly of
Salons, as the place of origin of George Ainian.
Ypati hosts,
among others, the Byzantine Museum of Fthiotida and the Kakogianni
Observatory of Ypati. Of interest is the church of Hagia Sophia,
which has been built on the site of an older church dating back to
the early Christian period. In the present church, which was
adjacent to a 5th century Baptistery on its south side, fragments of
the first complex can be seen. The church of Agios Nikolaos is also
interesting, also built on the site of an early Christian basilica
of the 4th to 6th century. Important is the Castle of Ypati, built
on a hill above the settlement, in which restoration and fixing
works are being carried out. The Castle was rebuilt or strengthened
in various phases by Greeks, as well as Frankish and Catalan
conquerors.
In ancient times the place was called Hypata (Ancient Greek Ὕπατα (n. pl.)) or Hypatē (Ὑπάτη (f. sg.)). The origin of the name is assumed to be the merger of hypo Oita, (ὑπὸ Οἴτα, “below [mountain] Oita”). Hypata is said to have been founded by the Ainian people in 410 BC, who settled here in the south of the Thessalian region of Phthiotis. Later it belonged to the amphictyony of Amphela. Herodotus already mentioned the hot springs, which were already used in ancient times. The city played a role in the defense against the Celts in 376 BC. After the Second Macedonian-Roman War, during which it served as a meeting place for the members of the Aetolian League, the city experienced a stasis between the supporters of the Romans and those of the Aitolians. Probably since 146 BC. In the 4th century BC the city then belonged to the Roman province of Achaea. Archaeological remains remain from the Roman period, suggesting that the city was of some importance in the 2nd century.
According to church tradition, Saint Herodion was said to have been
the city's first bishop in 66 AD, but this is highly doubtful from a
historical perspective. The names of two bishops are only known with
certainty for the 4th and 5th centuries. According to the Eastern Roman
historian Prokopios, Emperor Justinian had the city refortified in the
6th century, but with the invasion of the Slavs from around 580, its
trace was initially lost in tradition.
It was not until the
middle of the 9th century that the region was again under the control of
the Byzantine emperor, and now the place appears again as Neai Patrai
(ancient Greek Νέαι Πάτραι, "New Patras", modern Greek Neopatra), an
indication that Possibly residents of Patras relocated here. After the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, the city changed hands more frequently and was
the residence of the Principality of Greater Wallachia from 1268 and of
the Catalan Duchy of Neopatria, which was named after it, from 1318.
After a brief Serbian rule, the city was finally conquered by the
Ottomans in 1393 and incorporated into their empire as Batrajik or
Patratziki (“Little Patras”).
Revolution
Ypati (or Patratziki) played a not insignificant role
in the Greek Revolution. As a mountainous region, it was home to many
Klephts and was also the scene of three battles:
The battle on April
18, 1821, when Turkish-occupied Ypati was attacked by Greek
revolutionaries under Mitsos Kondogiannis, Dyovouniotis, Diakos and
Bakogiannis. The garrison in the city was defeated and there were
negotiations to take over, but these were unsuccessful because a large
Turkish army set up camp nearby, forcing the Greeks to retreat.
The
battle in May 1821, in which the Greek military leaders Gouras,
Skaltsodimos and Safakas wanted to take Ypati to stop the Turkish
advance to Livadia. However, they were attacked first and were able to
repel the attack, but after that the plans to conquer Ypati were
abandoned.
The battle on April 2, 1822, when, by agreement with
Alexandros Ypsilantis, the generals Kontogiannis, Panourgias, Skaltsas
and Sfakas managed to take the city, but not the castle above the city,
where 1,500 Turks and Albanians had entrenched themselves. After a few
days, together with the arrival of reinforcements, the successful attack
on the castle followed, which caused the besieged to flee. However, the
Greeks had to retreat again when Turkish reinforcements arrived from
Lamia.
After the liberation of Greece, the city belonged to the
Greek state founded in 1830 and resumed its ancient name in 1833. The
municipality of Ypati was established by law on January 10, 1834.
In the period following independence, the country was plagued by
robbers, for whom the forested region offered many hiding places.
However, over time, most of them were all caught and executed.
The next major event in the history of the town was the Turkish-Greek
War of 1896/1897, in which the Turks advanced to the nearby town of
Domokos. This caused the population to abandon the city and flee to
surrounding mountain villages.
On December 2, 1942, ten residents of the town were executed on
the rubble of the bridge over the Gorgopotamos River because it had
been blown up. On December 5, another six people were executed by
the Italians.
Saturday, June 14, 1944 was probably the
blackest day in the town's modern history. Since Ypati was a center
of the resistance movement ELAS, German occupation troops pillaged
and looted the place and executed civilians and resisters. 28 people
were killed, 30 injured and 375 of the 400 houses, Byzantine
churches and historic villas were destroyed. At the entrance to the
city there is now a monument commemorating the events of that day.
In the novel Metamorphoses (also known as: The Golden Ass), written in the 2nd century by the Roman writer Apuleius, the protagonist Lucius comes on a business trip to Hypata, where Thessalian witches are up to mischief. After a strange ritual celebrated in Hypata in honor of the god of laughter, Lucius learns that Pamphile, his host's wife, is also a witch. When Lucius tries to imitate a spell he secretly observed on her - she turns into an eagle owl and flies away - he is transformed into a donkey. Only long later and after many adventures does Lucius regain his human form by eating roses.
Saint Athanasios the Meteorite (1302-1380), the founder of the
Meteora
Alexandros Ainian (1908-1983), distinguished musician.
Zacharias Ainian (1750-1835), priest and teacher, member of the Society
of Friends
Dimitrios Grafsas (1948), military (honorary head of the
Greek Armed Forces)
Dimitrios Kostis (1910 - 1969), architect and
politician
Spyros Matsoukas (1873-1928), poet and benefactor
Ilias
Boboridis (1894 - 1979), military (retd. general)