Volos

The Old Town | The Museum | Arts and Culture | The Railway | The University

Volos (326 km. from Athens, 215 km from Salonica) is the capital and economic centre of the perfecture. Thanks to its privileged position at the foot of Mt. Pelion on the Pagasetic Gulf, it is a good base for enjoying the sea, wooded slopes and green valleys that surround it. As for the derivation of the word "Volos", which according to a Byzantine historian of the 14th century was called "Golos", there are several theories. The most widely accepted is that it represents a corruption of the Mycenaean Iolkos.

Founded in the mid 19th century, modern Volos is a cheerful, lively town, soundly laid out with pleasant, broad streets. The waterfront is an ideal spot for a stroll. A modern coastal avenue bustling with life, it is lined with pastry shops, cafes and restaurants. From the suburb of Ano Volos, built up the slopes of Pelion, the Pagasitic Gulf and the town below take on another dimension.

Volos harbour is particularly active. It is the main export centre of Thessaly and the scene of much commercial and passenger traffic bound for the Sporades, the great ports of Mediterranean, Syria and other Middle Eastern cities.

At the Centre of Greece

The city of Volos is situated at the centre of the Greek mainland, at an approximately equal distance from the country's two main urban centres, Athens and Salonica. Built at the innermost point of the Pagasitic Gulf and at the foot of Mount Pelion, it is the only outlet towards the sea from Thessaly, the country's largest agricultural region.

The greater Volos conurbation has a population of 150,000 and includes the Municipality of Volos with 90,000 inhabitants, the municipality of Nea Ionia with 50,000 inhabitans, the municipality of Iolkos as well as smaller suburbian communities. From a population of 4,887 in 1881, when Thessaly was annexed to the Greek state, Volos has increased its size twenty-fold within one century.

A combination of the knowledge and skills of the craftsmen of Mt. Pelion, the labour force of Thessaly and investment from the major centres of the Greek diaspora has enabled the city to develop into an important industrial centre with the third largest port in the country. The economy of the city is based on manufacturing, trade, services and tourism.

Volos is developing into a dynamic European city with a new and modern university, an active cultural life and varied oppurtunities for leisure and entertainment.

The new city

After 1830 craftsmen from Mt. Pelion, together with other inhabitants from the newly formed Greek state and elsewhere in the Greek diaspora, began to built a new city along the coast to the south-east of the old town. Streets of shops, workshops and residences were built parallel to the sea and soon the consulates of the European powers were also established there. Due to its geographical position close to the border of the Greek state, the new city and its port soon prospered, with increasing trade and manufacturing activity and in 1881, when Thessaly and Volos were annexed to the Greek state, the city entered a period of renewed activity.

The expansion of the port, with the addition of new facilities, and the construction of the railway connecting Volos to the towns of the Thessalian hinterland, lent additional economic strength to the city. This economic development was accompanied by increased activity in the fields of construction and planning, including monuments and buildings in the characteristic neo-classical and modern style of the period. Famous architects embellished the city with grandiose churches like those of St. Nicolas, Metamorphosis and St. Constantine which gave their names to their respective districts. The railway station, the large warehouses, the workshops and the newly constructed factories employed styles of industrial architecture current in cities of central and western Europe.

The expansion of the new city proceeded rapidly and local manufacturing evolved into fully fledged industry, chiefly in the fields of metallurgy, textiles, tobacco and tile-and-brickworks.

A narrow-gauge railway line connected Volos with the villages of Mt. Pelion. Substantial investment allowed the metal works of Volos to supply agricultural machinery to Thessaly, the rest of Greece and the Balkans and in the first World War many of the tanks originated from factories in Volos.

Following the expulsion of the Greek population from Asia Minor in 1922, o considerable influx of refugees arrived in Volos, contributing significantly to the progress of the region.

In the interwar period the "OLYMPUS" cement factory was established to the east of the city and expanded its activity progressively on an international level.

Ión 1955 strong earthquakes demolished the city almost entirely, destroying its previous architectural identity and necessitating the reconstruction which was the starting point for its present appearance. The development of the city between the wars is closely connected with the establishment of the Industrial Estate, the upgrading of the port and the growth of tourism due to the geographical position of Volos at the centre of a wider touristic region (Mt. Pelion, Northern Sporades, Euboea).

• The Old Town
• The Museum
• Arts and Culture
• The Railway
• The University