The ancient Dion, the sacred city of Macedonians, is sited in a 13 km distance from Katerini and about 7 km one from the national motorway between Thessaloniki and Athens. It was discovered at the northern feet of the Olympus but the time of its establishment has not been precisely estimated yet. It is regarded as a creating of the Macedonian and Peraevian kings, always comprising a crucial crossroad of grea strategic importance....
Pictures of Dion
Archaeology - Monuments
The ancient seaside city of Pydna (or Knyda) in located at the salt-marshes of the Cape of acherada, North Dion and near the town of Kitros, in Northern Pieria, about 15 km away from Katerini (to Thessaloniki).
Pydna was a large commercial port at the western coasts of the Bay of Thermaikos during the Hellenic, Hellenistic, Greco-Roman and Early Christin Eras, comprising a land and sea crossroad of great strategic importance. The ancient city is located at the site "Castro" (castle) of Paliokitros, round a knoll going back to the late Copper Age (1500-1000 BC), South of the today Makrygialos.
The first archaeological excavations began in 1970 and revealed a section of an ancient graveyard going back to the Iron Age (1000-600 BC), a pit-like grave of the 5th Century, crater-like graves (in Kitros) of the second half of the 4th Century, pit-like graves (Greek and Roman) and a Macedonian grace (near Makrygialos) of the 4th Century BC etc.
There are traces from old castle walls going back to the Protochristian and Byzantine Eras, which are also referred to by the tourist Leak in the 19th century, at the seaside, at the location "Paliokitros". In this space, a section of a Palaeochristion Basilica and a Byzantine church incorporated in a tower, dating from the times of the Franc Occupation (early 13th century), raising the conjecture that it comprised an Episcopal church in the Christian Kitros, was spotted.
Pictures of Pydna
Archaeology - Monuments
The Byzantine Castle of Platamonas (platamonas = a long beach) is located in the southern part of Pieria, on the side of the national motorway, on the top of a small hill by the sea. It is built at a key-position, jist opposite the "passage" of the Valley of Tempi, which has connected Thessaly to Pieria since the remote antiquity. It has been supported reasonably that the city Heraclia or Heraclion which was probably built in the 5th century BC, was located in exactly the same place. The castle -its greatest part at least- was built by the Franc king of Thessaloniki, Bonifacius e Monferèt, in 1205, upon a Byzantine castle that had previously existed there, as parts of its castle walls -dating from the 6th, 9th and 10th centuries- confirm. During the years 1218-1224 AD, the castle was seized by the Duke of Hepirus, Angelos Komninos, who gave an end to the Franc Occupation in Thessaloniki in 1224 naming this city the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
The Castle of Platamonas was conquered -about in 1389- by the Turks, who, thus, could have the overall control over the "passage" of the Valley of Tempi, leading to Southern Greece. Later on, nevertheless, while Mourat was encirclinf the Bay of Thermaikos, the Venetians took over the administration of Thessaloniki in 1423. The castle of Platamonas was fortified, then, on a parallel with the fortification of Cassandra, Chalkidiki, so that control over the entire Bay of Thermaikos would by possible.
During the years of the Turkish Occupation, the Castle of Platamonas was considerably fortified very early, owing to its strategic position and the commencement of the nationalistic liberating movements and recolutions taken up by the Greeks, the epicentre of which uprisings being the Olympus. Even more, Captain Lazos' -coming from the district of Olympus- son, John, managed to conquer the castle after a row of tremendous battles against its Albanian defenders.
When, later on, Southern Greece was liberated and Thessaly was attached to it (1881), the Castle of Platamonas at the Greek-Turkish of that time, regained a new and consederable significance for the Turks. Nevertheless, it was abandoned afterwards as its defence would be of no avail to the conquerors.
Pictures of Platamonas' Castle
Archaeology - Monuments
Beside the two palaeochristian basilicas in Dion, the post-byzantine church of Kitros (Pydna) as well as the Castle of Platamonas, Pieria, also prides many other Byzantine monuments, such as: the Church of Virgin Mary (Kimisis Theotokou) in the village Kontariotissa (a building, perhaps, going back to the 11th century, decorated by frescos of the 15th century); the church of Saint Athanasious in Aeginion; the palaeochristian basilica at the spot "Vrondismeni" (thundered) in Petra, Olympus, built in 1151; the Byzantine settlement of Petra, dating from the 14-15th centuries; the Abbey of Kanala (at the left bank of the River Zliana in Southern Pieria, near the Valley of Tempi); the Abbey of Saint Dennis in the Olympus, built during the first half of the 16th century; the church of Santa Solomoni in Litochoro; the church of Saint Athanasious in Scotine; the church of Saint Aposoli (Apostles) at Pori; the church under the same name at the site "Agii Anargyri" at the village Lophos (hill), dating from the 10th century, the church of Zoodochos Pigi (Lefi-giving Source) at the village Peristasi, perhaps, dating from the 14th century; the Monastery of Saint George at Retine, containing icons painted in the 17th century; the church of Saing Athanasios of Kolindros, containing icons made in the 16th century; the church of Saint Nicolas at Eleochorio, priding a sublime wooden reredosl the popular, traditional achitecture of the, today abandoned, old village Panteleimon etc.
The Castle of the Lazeis', who were fighters for the Liberty and independence of the Greek nation before and during the Greek Revolution of 1821, built in the destrict of the Pierian Mountains at the village Milia, 25 km southwest of Katerini, is also of great historic and archaeological interest.
Pictures of Pieria
Archaeology - Monuments
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