Tempti – Old Pantelaimonas – Platamonas

Tempe

The Tempe the Valley of Tempes is a valley of Greece formed between Mount Olympus and Ossa. The valley is 10 kilometers long, while at its narrowest point a gorge is formed with a width of 25 meters and a depth of about 500 meters. Inside it flows the river Pinios, which then flows into the Aegean. Tempi is the main passage from Macedonia to Thessaly, for this reason the area has been of great importance since antiquity. The name of Tempi has been preserved since antiquity. During the Turkish occupation, Tempi was also called Dad. The small village at the entrance of the valley, now called Tempi, was also referred to by the same name. Near the exit of Tempe there is a spring known since ancient times as the "Fountain of Daphne".

Old Panteleimonas

THE Old Panteleimonas is a village in the prefecture of Pieria. It is built at an altitude of 440 meters on the eastern slopes of Mount Olympus. Administratively it belonged to the former municipality of East Olympus, which is an administrative unit of the municipality of Dion - Olympus, and its population according to the 2001 census is 34 inhabitants.

Paleos Panteleimonas is a designated traditional settlement as it is one of the best examples of traditional Macedonian architecture in northern Greece. The settlement managed to preserve its local color as it had been almost deserted since the 1950s, when its inhabitants moved en masse to the larger settlement of Neos Panteleimon. However, in the 1980s the situation changed, when the settlement was restored and rapid tourism began its development. The traditional local color of the settlement as well as the short distance that separated it from the tourist resorts of Pieria and from the Athens-Thessaloniki national road made the area popular with tourists. Today it is a pole of attraction for visitors and passers-by of southern Pieria.

Platamonas

The original name of the city in ancient times was Heraklion or Heraklia. The later history of Platamonas is identified with its famous castle. The castle is preserved in very good condition and is used for summer cultural events. In one of the most ancient testimonies about Pieria, from the archive of the Consulate of Venice in Thessaloniki, there is a mention of the name of Platamon as "in Platainea, May 1193". In the said letter he writes »Petros Suriano from Matsorbo and Gerardos Markezano, living in Thessaloniki, testify that the noted delay of the ship headed for Kitron and Venice came from the fear of the Pisan pirates. The certificate was completed and validated by the deacon and notary in Platainea, Markos Grillioni".

Also, in 1520-21 it is mentioned in a financial document that it was administratively dependent on Larissa. Platamonas is mentioned in the "portolano" of Dimitrios Taia, which was published in Venice. Martin Crusius (1585) at Swabian he refers to a visitor, whose wife came "from the city of Platamonos lying by the sea".

In 1641-42, Konstantinos Logothetis, a graduate of the Hellenic College of Agios Athanasios in Rome, taught at Platamonas (he gave pro-Western sermons in churches).

In the first decade of the 20th century, the liberated Platamonas passed through railway Papapouliou of Larissa - Plateos of Imathia, which connected Athens with Thessaloniki by rail and by extension Greece with the rest of Europe. Thanks to this, Platamonas experienced leaps and bounds in growth from thousands of Larisa vacationers and not only. Since 2004, the new high-speed railway line passes Platamonas through a tunnel of more than four kilometers. However, the old coastal railway line that passes through landscapes of incomparable natural beauty and has museum facilities, was declared a "historic site" by Ministerial Decision "Characterization as a historical site of the Platamonas railway line", according to Law 3028/2002 "about protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in general" and intensive efforts are now being made for its museum reopening. Also, the old railway line of Platamonas (as well as the old lines of Tempe and North Pieria) is included in the official study of the summer line No. 5 of the Thessaloniki Suburban Railway (Thessaloniki Suburban Railway Route Map, Thessaloniki Urban Transport Council), which it will help the further development of Platamon without any problem in the museum character of the line.

On 15 and 16 April 1941, during the Nazi invasion of Greece, fierce battles took place for the defense of the area, the railway line and the Castle, with the participation of New Zealand soldiers, which went down in history as "Battle of Platamon".