Andros (, ) is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, about southeast of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . It is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and well-watered valleys. The municipality, which includes the island Andros and several small, uninhabited islands, has an area of . The largest towns are Andros, Gavrio, Batsi, and Ormos Korthiou.

Palaeopolis, the ancient capital, was built into a steep hillside, and the breakwater of its harbor can still be seen underwater. At the village of Apoikia, there is the notable spring of Sariza, where the water flows from a sculpted stone lion's head. Andros also offers hiking options with many new paths being added each year.

Strofilas

During the Final Neolithic, Andros had a fortified village on its west coast, which archaeologists have named , after the plateau on which it was built. Final Neolithic in the Cycladic area is now dated around 4500–4000 BC. Strofilas was related to the "Attica-Kephala" culture, coinciding with the beginning of the Cycladic culture of the Bronze Age.

thumb|Ruins of the Neolithic village of Strofilas

Strofilas is the largest organized settlement of the Neolithic Age of the Aegean in Cyclades islands. It was rather densely built, and stretches over 30 acres. The excavations were started in 1997 by a team of Greek archeologists headed by Christina Televantou.

The settlement was an important maritime centre and one of the earliest examples of fortification in Greece. Its fortifications feature a gate and bastions.

Strofilas is also notable for rock carvings on its walls, which include animals such as jackals, goats, deer, fish and dolphins, as well as a depiction of a flotilla of ships.

About 1km to the southeast along the coastline, also can be found the site of , another ancient settlement of a later Geometric period. The settlement dates back to the 10th-8th centuries BC. An impregnable wall, about 110 meters long, was constructed around it.

History

Antiquity

thumb|180px|left|[[Hermes of Andros|Statue of Hermes Chthonios (Roman copy of 1st AD), Archaeological Museum of Andros]]

In ancient times, the island contained an Ionian population, perhaps with an admixture of Thracian ancestry. Though it has been proposed that Andros was originally dependent on Eretria, by the 7th century BC it had become sufficiently prosperous to send out several colonies, to Chalcidice (Acanthus, Stageira, Argilus, Sane). The ruins of Palaeopolis, the ancient capital, are on the west coast; the town possessed a famous temple, dedicated to Dionysus. In 480 BC, it supplied ships to Xerxes and was subsequently harried by the Greek fleet. Though enrolled in the Delian League, it remained disaffected towards Athens, and in 477 had to be coerced by the establishment of a cleruchy on the island; nevertheless, in 411 Andros proclaimed its freedom, and in 408 withstood an Athenian attack. As a member of the second Delian League, it was again controlled by a garrison and an archon. In the Hellenistic period, Andros was contended for as a frontier-post by the two naval powers of the Aegean Sea, Macedon and Ptolemaic Egypt. In 333, it received a Macedonian garrison from Antipater; in 308 it was freed by Ptolemy I of Egypt. In the Chremonidean War (266–263) it passed again to Macedon after a battle off its shores. The Ptolemaic empire was at its height, with a considerable fleet stationed at Andros.

In 200, it was captured by a combined Roman, Pergamene and Rhodian fleet, and remained a possession of the Attalid kingdom until its dissolution in 133 BC, when it was granted to Rome.

Modern period

On 10 May 1821, Theophilos Kairis, one of the leading Greek intellectuals, declared the island's participation in the Greek War of Independence by raising the Greek flag at the Church of St George.

Administration

Andros is a separate regional unit of the South Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. As part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Andros was created out of part of the former Cyclades Prefecture. At the same reform, the current municipality Andros was created out of the 3 former municipalities:

  • Andros (town)
  • Korthio
  • Ydrousa

Province

thumb|Batsi village

The province of Andros () was one of the provinces of the Cyclades Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current regional unit Andros. It was abolished in 2006.

Population

In 1900, Andros, the capital, had about 2,000 inhabitants, and the island as a whole had a population of about 18,000. The 1991 census showed that number had dropped to 8,781. According to the 2011 Greek census, the town of Andros still numbered 1,665 inhabitants, and the island's total was 9,221. The island is composed of the municipal units of Andros (town) (pop. 3,901), Korthio (pop. 1,948), and Ydrousa (pop. 3,372). The north of Andros has a small Arvanite community. The name of the island in Arvanitika is Ε̰νdρα, Ëndra.

Tourism

thumb|The beach

One notable beach in Andros is (, Jump of the old woman). It is named after an old woman who, according to legend, betrayed a nearby town to Saracen pirates. She then jumped off a cliff to her death and was transformed into a distinctive vertical rock that is a striking feature of the beach.

Cinema

  • Girls in the Sun
  • Little England

thumb|180px|A bust of [[Theophilos Kairis]]

Notable people

  • Amphis (4th century BC), comic poet
  • Matthew (fl.17461766), Patriarch of Alexandria
  • Theophilos Kairis (1784–1853), scholar, teacher, priest and revolutionary
  • Alexander Pantages (1875–1936), American vaudeville magnate
  • Yiannis Tridimas (born 1945), established UK long-distance runner
  • Nikitas Kaklamanis (1946–present), doctor and politician, mayor of Athens
  • Adamantios Polemis, major shipowner and Panathinaikos shareholder

<gallery class="center">

File:Chora of Andros, seafront, villas, 090505.jpg|Chora of Andros, seafront

File:Mesa Kastro Andros (Cyclades).jpg|Panagia Thalassini & ruins of venetian castle in Andros (Mesa Kastro)

File:Street to Museum of Modern Art, Chora of Andros, 090498.jpg|Street to the Museum of Modern Art (Goulandris Foundation)

File:Chora of Andros, monument in front of the Maritime Museum, 090605.jpg|Chora of Andros, monument in front of the Maritime Museum

File:Eot-andros-1958.jpg|Xenia Andros

File:Batsi, Andros island.jpg|Batsi, Andros

File:Gavrio Andros Greece 2018041117490NP2389.jpg|Gavrio, Andros

File:Andros island, Stenies village and Apoikia in the background.jpg|Stenies village

File:Andros, St. Peter's Tower (34401187164).jpg|St. Peter's Tower

File:Sunset from Andros, Greece.jpg|Sunset from Andros

</gallery>

Notes

References

  • "Large Bronze Age Town Unearthed On Andros." New York, N.Y.:Hellenic Times. Sep 2- 30, 2005. Vol. XXXII, Iss. 11; pg. 2. ISSN 1059-2121 (link)
  • Demetrios I. Polemis: History of Andros. Kaïreios Library, Andros 2016. Translated by Dafni Dimitriadou. With an Appendix including new data on Andros. ISBN 978-960-7709-38-7 (Translation of Δημήτριου Ι. Πολέμη, Ιστορία της Άνδρου, Άνδρος 1981)

Attribution:

  • Official website of Municipality of Ándros
  • Official website of Municipality of Korthío
  • Andros365 e-mag of Andros Island
  • Richard Stillwell, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, 1976: "Andros, one of the Cyclades, Greece"
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