Dyrrachio is a village in the west-central part of Arcadia

Arcadia

Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. Dyrrachio had a population of 299 in 2001. It is situated at an altitude of 800 meters (2,500 ft) in the Taygetos mountains of the Peloponnese

Peloponnese

The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...

. It is about 40 km NW of Sparta

Sparta

Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

, 30 km S of Megalopoli and 40 km NE of the town of Kalamata

Kalamata

Kalamata is the second-largest city of the Peloponnese in southern Greece. The capital and chief port of the Messenia prefecture, it lies along the Nedon River at the head of the Messenian Gulf...

.

Geography

Dyrrachi is situated in a valley area, the mountains are to the east and west. The road linking Leontari and Dyrrachi is to the north. Farmlands are within the village area and the mountains are also around the area.

Population

Year	Settlement population
1981	345
1991	255
2001	299

History

The village used to have a large population before the beginning of the 20th century. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and the Greek Civil War

Greek Civil War

The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...

, the population began to decline as residents moved to larger towns and cities and outside of Greece. The population lost since that time, the population lost by half between 1981 and 1991 but it regained between 1991 and 2001. The fire ravaged most of Dyrrachio on Tuesday August 27, 2007, advancing slowly and burning much of the area, including undergrowth and trees; most of the residents remained behind. Windspeeds were high and temperatures were around 40°C at the time. Firefighters, along with the town's residents, choppers and airplanes put out the blaze. The blaze did not spread east into Pellana

Pellana

Pellana , was a city of Laconia, on the Eurotas river, and on the road from Sparta to Arcadia....

 and into the Laconia-Messinia prefectural boundary, as the fire was put out before it reached these limits.

Information

Its main industry is agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

. Its main products are olive

Olive

The olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...

s, citrus

Citrus

Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...

and other fruits, vegetables and other crops.

Its residential houses and buildings are on the main road, the town being about 200 to 300 m wide at its centre. Many of the houses were stone built until the 1970s. Electricity arrived in the same year. Vehicles arrived in the 1970s, and paving of the main road and television arrived in the 1980s. However, computers and connection to the Internet are rare even at the beginning of the 21st century. The monthly or bimonthly circular that serves the village and the Dyrrachio environs is the Dyrrachitika Nea (Δυρραχίτικα Νέα)

External links

• http://www.dyrrachitikanea.gr - Newspaper's website
• History and Information about Dyrrachio
• Dyrrachi on the GTP Travel Pages