Clockwise from top right: Promenade of Kalamata, Saint John Church, Kyriakou Folklore Museum, Kalamata City Hall, Archaeological Museum of Messenia, Church of the Holy Apostles, Kalamata Castle
The 2021 census recorded 72,906 inhabitants for the wider Kalamata Municipality, of which 66,135 resided in the municipal unit of Kalamata, and 58,816 in the city proper.[1] Kalamata is renowned as the land of the Kalamatianos dance, Kalamata olives and Kalamata olive oil.
Name
The modern name Kalamáta likely comes from Παναγία η Καλαμάτα, Panagía i Kalamáta, 'Virgin Mary with beautiful eyes'; another hypothesis is a corruption of the older name Καλάμαι, Kalámai, 'reeds'.[2]
Administration
The municipality Kalamata was formed as part of the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following four former municipalities, each of which subsequently became municipal units:[3]
The municipality has an area of 440 km2 (170 sq mi), the area of the municipal unit is 253 km2 (98 sq mi).[4]
Subdivisions
The municipal unit of Kalamata is subdivided into the following communities (population according to the 2021 census, settlements within the community listed):[1]
The province of Kalamata (Greek: Επαρχία Καλαμών) was one of the provinces of the Messenia Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Kalamata and West Mani.[5] It was abolished in 2006.
History
View of the Kalamata Castle
The history of Kalamata begins with Homer (Greek: Ομηρος), who mentions Firai, an ancient city built more or less where the Kalamata Castle stands today. It was long believed that the area that the city presently occupies was covered by the sea during ancient times, but the proto-Greek and archaic period remains (Poseidon temple) that were unearthed at Akovitika region prove otherwise.
Middle Ages
The Byzantine-era Church of the Holy Apostles
Pharai was rather unimportant in antiquity, and the site continued in obscurity until middle Byzantine times. Kalamata is first mentioned in the 10th-century Life of St. Nikon the Metanoeite, and experienced a period of prosperity in the 11th–12th centuries, as attested by the five surviving churches built in this period, including the Church of the Holy Apostles, as well as the comments of the Arab geographer al-Idrisi, who calls it a "large and populous" town.[6]
Following the Fourth Crusade, Kalamata was conquered by Frankish feudal lords William of Champlitte and Geoffrey of Villehardouin in 1205, when its Byzantine fortress was apparently in so bad a state that it could not be defended against them. Thus, the town became part of the Principality of Achaea, and after Champlitte granted its possession to Geoffrey of Villehardouin, the town was the center of the Villehardouins' patrimony in the Principality. Prince William II of Villehardouin was born and died there.[6][7] After William II's death in 1278, Kalamata remained in the hands of his widow, Anna Komnene Doukaina, but when she remarried to Nicholas II of Saint Omer, King Charles of Anjou was loath to see this important castle in the hands of a vassal, and in 1282 Anna exchanged it with lands elsewhere in Messenia.[7]
In 1292 or 1293, two local Melingoi Slavic captains managed to capture the fortress of Kalamata by a ruse and, aided by 600 of their fellow villagers, took over the entire lower town as well in the name of the Byzantine emperor, Andronikos II Palaiologos. Constable John Chauderon in vain tried to secure their surrender, and was sent to Constantinople, where Andronikos agreed to hand the town over, but then immediately ordered his governor in Mystras not to do so. In the event, the town was recovered by the Franks through the intercession of a local Greek, a certain Sgouromalles.[8] In 1298, the town formed the dowry of Princess Matilda of Hainaut upon her marriage to Guy II de la Roche. Matilda retained Kalamata as her fief until 1322, when she was dispossessed and the territory reverted to the princely domain.[7] In 1358, Prince Robert gifted the châtellenie of Kalamata (comprising also Port-de-Jonc and Mani) to his wife, Marie de Bourbon, who kept it until her death in 1377.[7] The town remained one of the largest in the Morea—a 1391 document places it, with 300 hearths, on par with Glarentza—but it nevertheless declined in importance throughout the 14th and 15th centuries in favour of other nearby sites like Androusa. Kalamata remained in Frankish hands until near the end of the Principality of Achaea, coming under the control of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea only in 1428.[7]
Kalamata was occupied by the Ottomans from 1481 to 1685, like the rest of Greece. In 1659, during the long war between Ottomans and Venetians over Crete, the Venetian commander Francesco Morosini, came into contact with the rebellious Maniots, for a joint campaign in the Morea, in the course of which he took Kalamata. He was soon after forced to return to Crete, but the Venetians returned to the Morean War.
The Venetian Republic ruled Kalamata from 1685 as part of the "Kingdom of the Morea" (Italian: Regno di Morea). During the Venetian occupation the city was fortified, developed and thrived economically. However, the Ottomans reoccupied Kalamata in the war of 1715 and controlled it until the Greek War of Independence.
Greek Minor-asian MonumentThe city hallFolklore museum (Kyriakou mansion)The archaeological museum
In independent Greece, Kalamata was rebuilt and became one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean Sea. It is not surprising that the second-oldest Chamber of Commerce in the Mediterranean, after that of Marseille, exists in Kalamata. In 1934, a large strike of harbor workers occurred in Kalamata. The strike was violently suppressed by the government, resulting in the death of five workers and two other residents of the town.[9]
Kalamata was again in the news on 13 September 1986, when it was hit by an earthquake that measured 6.2 on the surface wave magnitude scale. It was described as "moderately strong" but caused heavy damage throughout the city, killed 20 people and injured 330 others.[10][11][12][13]
Due to these efforts, Kalamata has now developed into a modern provincial capital and has returned to growth during the recent years. Today, Kalamata has the second largest population and mercantile activity in Peloponnese. It makes important exports, particularly of local products such as raisins, olives and olive oil. It is also the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of Messenia. The current Metropolitan Bishop is Chrisostomus III, since 15 March 2007.
Sights
View from the castleView of the old townAgios Ioannis (St. John) churchKarelia Tobacco Company factory
Maria Callas Alumni Association of the Music School of Kalamata / "Maria Callas Museum"
There are numerous historical and cultural sights in Kalamata, such as the Villehardouin castle, the Ypapanti Byzantine church, the Kalograion monastery with its silk-weaving workshop where the Kalamata scarves are made, and the municipal railway park. The Church of the Holy Apostles is where Mavromichalis declared the revolt against Ottoman rule in 1821. Art collections are housed at the Municipal Gallery, the Archaeological Museum of Messenia and the Folk Art Museum.
The Maria Callas Alumni Association of the Music School of Kalamata (www.mariacallas.gr) with the exhibition of the personal letters of the legendary Maria Callas.
Cathedral of Ypapanti
Kalamata's cathedral of the Ypapanti (Presentation of the Lord to the Temple) nestles beneath the 14th-century Frankish castle. The foundation stone was laid on 25 January 1860, and the building was consecrated on 19 August 1873. It suffered great damage during the 1986 earthquake,[12] but was subsequently restored. The Festival of the Ypapanti (27 January through 9 February) is of national importance for the Greek Orthodox Church and, locally, the occasion for a holiday (2 February), when the litany of what is believed to be a miraculous icon, first introduced in 1889, takes place.
In late January 2010, the city hosted the Ecumenical PatriarchBartholomew to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the cathedral. He was offered the golden key of the city. The region around Kalamata has provided two Ecumenical patriarchs in the past.
Economy
Historic advertising for olive oil soap from Kalamata
According to the meteorological station in the nearby airport, Kalamata has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa) with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers.[17] Kalamata receives plenty of precipitation during the winter, while summers are hot and generally dry with plenty of sunshine. The highest maximum temperature ever recorded in Kalamata is 45.0 °C or 113.0 °F on 24 June 2007 and the lowest minimum ever recorded is −5 °C or 23 °F on 14 February 2004. A reading of 45.1 °C (113.2 °F) was reported in the city station which is operated by the National Observatory of Athens on 23 July 2023.[18]
Climate data for Kalamata airport, HNMS 1971–2010 normals
Kalamata is accessed by GR-7/E55/E65 in the west, and GR-82 runs through Kalamata and into the Taygetus. The motorway to Kalamata from Tripoli is complete.[22]
Kalamata is served by a metre gauge railway line of the former Piraeus, Athens and Peloponnese Railways, now owned by the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE). There is a station and a small freight yard in the city, as well as a rolling stock maintenance depot to the north. There used to be a mainline train service to Kyparissia, Pyrgos and Patras, and a suburban service to Messini and the General Hospital. However, in December 2010, all train services from Kalamata, along with those in the rest of the Peloponnese south of Corinth, were discontinued on economic grounds, and the train station is now closed. A previously disused extension line to the port is now a Railway Park, with old steam engines on display, and a café in the old station building.
Kalamata hosts a lot of notable sport clubs with earlier presence in the higher national divisions in Greek football. It also hosts one of the oldest Greek club, the club Messiniakos FC founded in 1888.
^Kolonia, Amalia; Peri, Massimo, eds. (2008). "Gli scambi linguistici fra Italia e Grecia". Greco antico neogreco e italiano (in Italian and Greek). Bologna: Zanichelli. p. 95. ISBN978-88-08-06429-5.
^Anagnostopolous, S. A.; Rinaldis, D.; Lekidis, V. A.; Margaris, V. N.; Theodulidis, N. P. (1987). "The Kalamata, Greece, Earthquake of September 13, 1986". Earthquake Spectra. 3 (2): 365–402. Bibcode:1987EarSp...3..365A. doi:10.1193/1.1585434. S2CID128902740.
^"GREECE Kalamata now tent city". The Canberra Times. Vol. 61, no. 18, 614. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 18 September 1986. p. 4. Retrieved 24 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^"More tremors in Greek town". The Canberra Times. Vol. 61, no. 18, 612. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 16 September 1986. p. 4. Retrieved 24 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
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