The Town of Aigio / Vostitsa

Companion for THDD episode 2.14

The town of Aigio (AKA Vostitsa), has evolved since ancient times, yet traces of older remains can still be found. This is a collection of plots, maps, photos, and textual sources to accompany the episode of The Helonaki Deep Dive on Aigio.

Pictures of Aigio in 2022

Picture showing old railroad track between Gulf of Corinth and pink walking path.

The old train tracks in Aigio are between the harbor and the new walking path.

Two adjacent stone warehouses, one falling apart and the other with a new facade.

Some warehouses along the Aigio waterfront have been rehabilitated and are in use, while the rest are in various stages of disrepair.

Old stone house, now a museum, partially seen through fence.

An old stone house from the 1800s has become the city historical museum. Unfortunately it was closed during my visit to Aigio.

Picture showing four churches, some with domes, others with belltowers, and some with both.

Four churches in Aigio. From top-left, clockwise: Aghios Faneromeni, Aghios Theotokou, Aghios Andreas, and Aghios Taxiarchon. All of the churches except for Aghios Andreas are all in the 1700 Venetian map of Vostitsa. Aghios Andreas is in the part of town known as Galaxidi, which was settled in the early 1800s.

Georeferencing the 1700 map

1700 map of the town of Vostitsa.

A map of the town of Vostitsa from 1700 was included among the Venetian cadastral records and was published with them by Dokos and Panagopoulos in 1993.

Split screen view of 1700 map and modern map of Aigio showing red dots at locations found on both maps.

The georeferencing process was done using qGIS and consists of matching locations from the 1700 map with places on a present-day map.

1700 map overlaid on modern map of Aigio.

The end result of georeferencing is the older map overlaid on the modern map. The process usually takes a few iterations to get right.

Pausanias' description of Aigio

The description of Aigio or Aegium starts at 7.23.5 and continues through 7.24.4 in Pausanias 1918 on Perseus website.

Chronicle of Morea

Table with 4 columns for locations mentioned in 4 versions of the Chronicle of Morea.

Locations mentioned in the 4 versions of the Chronicle of Morea. The 4 versions are Greek, French, Aragonese, and Italian. Based on translations of the four versions in Shawcross 2009, pp. 289-302.

Middle Ages Peloponnese

Western European traveler images of Vostitsa/Aigio

Drawing of fountains with people and animals nearby
Drawing of mountain with town near the coast and boats on the water.
Drawing in color of town on a hill with mountain behind it and a large plane tree on the coast.
Drawings of a cave, two partial reliefs, and an inscription.
Drawing of town with some buildings near coast and a mountain in the background.

Aigio/Vostitsa Population

Graph of population in Aigio between 1463 and 1950.

Population in Aigio has mostly trended upwards, except between 1907 and 1920, although the time periods of time between population totals until the censuses conducted by the modern Greek state hide fluctuations in population.

Aigio/Vostitsa Neighborhoods

Barchart of buildings per Aigio/Vostitsa neighborhood in 1700 and 1817.

Buildings per neighborhood in Aigio/Vostitsa from 1700 Venetian cadaster and 1817 report on earthquake damage. Note that there is no record of Turkish quarter or Galaxidi in 1700 records and no record of S. Atanasi in 1817. There is only 1 building in the S. Zorzi neighborhood in 1817, and that is the very old church of S. Zorzi.

Bibliography

Dokos, Konstantinos., and Georgios D. Panagopoulos. To Venetiko ktematologio tes Vostitsas. Athena: Morphotiko Institouto Agrotikes Trapezas, 1993.

Liakopoulos, Georgios. The Early Ottoman Peloponnese: A Study in the Light of an Annotated Editio Princeps of the TT10-1/14662 Ottoman Taxation Cadastre (ca. 1460-1463). London: Gingko, 2019.

Μονιουδη-Γαβαλα, Δωρα. Πολεοδομια στο ελληνικο κρατος, 1833-1890: Αθηνα, Ερμουπολη, Μεσολογγι, Αγρινιο, Αιγιο, Σπαρτη. Urban planning in the Greek state, 1833-1890: Athens, Ermopouli, Mesolonghi, Agrinio, Aigio, Sparta. 1. ekd. Agrinio: Εκδοση Τμηματος Διαχειρισης Πολιτισμικου Περιβαλλοντος και Νεων Τεχνολογιων του Πανεπιστημιου Δυτικης Ελλαδας, 2012.

Shawcross, Clare Teresa M. The chronicle of Morea historiography in Crusader Greece. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009.

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