Ancient Eretria Evia
The ancient Eritrea city is also one of the things to do and see in Evia in the most absolute way. Here history weighs like a boulder and for archeology lovers it will certainly be an exciting experience.
We find it in the southwest of the island where today stands the Eretria new city which has by now become a tourist center in great demand for its famous archaeological site and for the beauty of the area made up of beaches bathed by a crystalline sea and still uncontaminated nature.
Eretria was once a glorious city state, a maritime, commercial and agricultural power that expanded by creating colonies in Italy as well and was known throughout ancient Greece. It was together with Athens to lead the Ionian revolt by sending a large army to support the cities of Ionia (Miletus, Miunte and Priene in Caria, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedo, Teo, Clazomene, Focea and Erythra in Lydia and the Samos island and Chios island) in an attempt to overthrow Persian rule. At this juncture, the Greeks completely conquered and burned Sardis but had to withdraw due to the abundant losses after the Lade battle where they were worsted. The Persian King Darius swore revenge against Athens and Eretria before this affront. Thus it was that in 490 BC he began to subjugate Greece with a fleet led by Datis and Artaphernes who began by conquering the Cyclades Islands to reach the Euboea island in mid summer and besieging the Eretria city. The encirclement lasted 6 days before some Eritrian nobles betrayed their people by throwing the city to the Persians who sacked it and deported the population to the Ardericca and Susiana villages near Persepolis, the Persia capital. After Eretria the Persians set sail for Athens but as history teaches at Marathon they were defeated. Destroyed twice later again by the Persians and then by the Romans, it was abandoned until 1827 when the refugees from the Psara island settled and repopulated the area.
The archaeological site of the Eretria old city, unfortunately, no longer keeps many finds, most or rather the most important ones have been brought to the Archaeological Museum. There you can find terracotta statues of centaurs from the 10th century BC, carved lions, urns, lanterns, tombs and ancient pottery. In the museum of the capital Chalcis, however, two Kouroi are exhibited (you can also find them on the Naxos island) considered as the most important pieces of the ancient era. On the site the remains of the houses and the large stone walls are visible, precisely cut so as to wonder how they could have seen the means of the past. In the ancient theater dating back to the 5th century BC on an artificial hill supported by retaining walls, there is a tomb dating back to the Macedonian period (8th - 2nd century BC) called the " Eros Tomb" and a few ruins of the temple dedicated to Apollo Daphenophoros. And still four temples, baths, a gymnasium and a house with splendid mosaics.
Let's say that this type of experience is only good for those who truly love history and archeology but it is always good to enrich one's knowledge and see with one's own eyes these wonders that the ancient world has given us.