Ancient Pelinna - Ancient Pelinna

Excavations are in progress

Pelinnaion, Ancient Pelinna, was a city that flourished during the Hellenistic period, around the citadel of which during the Middle Byzantine period developed a settlement and a diocese with the name Gardiki or Paliogardiki.

The ancient Pelinna or Pelinnaion, in Petroporos, Trikala Pelinnaio, home of Hippocrates praised by Pindar in his tenth Pythion, has been identified since the time of Leake with the ancient relics at the site "Paleogardiki", north of the present-day community of Petroporos in Trikala. According to the mythological tradition, the founder of the city was Pelinos, son of Oichalias from the Homeric city of Oichalia in the country of Evrytos. A city of the tetrarchy of Estiaiotida, built in a strategic position in the narrow passage that is created between the mountain range of Hassia and the river Pinios, controlled the road from Trikki (today Trikala) to Larissa. With a Macedonian garrison permanently stationed in it since the years of Philip II, it was favored and found at the forefront of political developments throughout Macedonian rule in Thessaly, thanks to the loyal pro-Macedonian policy that followed. The surviving parts of the city walls are today its only visible relics, as the lack of systematic excavations does not allow the image of life in it to be partially restored. However, evidence of the cultural level of its inhabitants, their social stratification and ideology are provided by the findings of the rescue excavations in its cemeteries. Among the oldest, the archaic bronze urn of the National Archaeological Museum and the gold jewelry from a tomb of the 2nd half of the 2nd c. BC, which are now on display at the Archaeological Museum of Volos. In recent years, on the occasion of water supply and road construction works, 62 tombs were excavated (box-shaped, pit-shaped, tiled roofs, cases, clay and stone shrines) that cover the period from the 5th to the 2nd c. e.g. as well as a vaulted roof of the Hellenistic Era, which was covered by a mound. In the Byzantine years, the city of Gardikio, the seat of a bishop, was built on the acropolis of Pelinnaeus.

The surviving parts of the city walls are today the only visible relics, as the lack of systematic excavations does not allow the image of life to be partially restored. However, evidence of the cultural level of its inhabitants, their social stratification and their ideology provide the findings of the rescue excavations in its cemeteries. Among the oldest, the archaic bronze ashtray of the National Archaeological Museum and the gold jewelry from a tomb of the 2nd half of the 2nd c. BC, which are now on display at the Archaeological Museum of Volos. In recent years, on the occasion of water supply and road construction projects, 62 tombs were excavated (box-shaped, pit-shaped, tiled roofs, cases, clay and stone shrines) that cover the period from the 5th to the 2nd c. e.g. as well as an arched roof of the Hellenistic Era, which was covered by a mound.