Anthochori, Arcadia

The lignite mining activity has been slowly extending towards Anthochori since the late-1970s. By 2002 mining machinery stood at 1 km to the northwest of Anthochori and the mine finally reached the first houses of the settlement in 2006. Village houses became a target for looters and the settlement was finally abandoned in 2007. Subsequently, starting from its northwestern part, the old village homes were demolished and their remains were dumped to the south while the roads, already closed for some years, were eventually removed. Most of the farmlands and forests also disappeared.

Until late 2008 the only remaining building of Anthochori left standing was its main church dedicated to 'The Presentation of the Virgin to the Temple' (Greek: Τα Εισόδια της Θεοτόκου). None of the demolition workers was willing to take responsibility for its destruction and, thus, the church remained standing upon a tall 'column' of soil while the surrounding earth was being excavated. The 'last church standing' became internationally famous when its photograph by Stuart Franklin appeared in the Time magazine on 17 September 2008 [8]

On 29 November 2008 the church collapsed upon itself and, with it, all visible evidence of Anthochori's material existence. By the mid 2009 all that once was the village of Anthochori was gone, its buildings leveled, and its earth scraped out to extract lignite. It is claimed that the demolition of Anthochori marks the final expansion of the lignite mine which, in turn, signals the beginning of the end for the Megalopolis thermo-electric power plant.

At least until the end of 2009 Anthochori was still mentioned in some maps, including Mapquest, while satellite images have yet to show the expansion of the lignite mine over the area that used to be Anthochori. For example, when accessed on 15 November 2009, GoogleEarth[9] still used a detailed satellite photo taken on 26 August 2003, where Anthochori's buildings and original geo-topography are clearly visible. This satellite picture can be found here.

Megalopolis' mine expansion was featured on a TV documentary on April 7, 2006. This documentary was produced by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT).

In 2008, Time magazine published a short article under the title 'Europe's changing places' which used a dramatic photo of Anthochori's main church - 'The Presentation of the Virgin to the Temple' (Greek: Τα Εισόδια της Θεοτόκου) - taken by world famous British photographer Stuart Franklin in 2007.[10] In this picture the church stands alone on a tall 'column' of soil, as the sole survivor of the demolished village at the time. This picture is included in Stuart Franklin's book 'Footprint: Our Landscape in Flux'.

The same picture was included in a presentation of Stuart Franklin's work in the Guardian newspaper,[11] accompanied by the following note by the photographer:

'To the ancient Greeks, Arcadia was a rural idyll. Instead of a lush, bucolic landscape, I found one devastated by the hunt for fossil fuels. Sixty per cent of Greece’s electricity is derived from lignite (brown coal). This involves bulldozing whole landscapes to feed the nearby power station. In Megalopolis I found Greece’s second largest lignite mine. The village of Anthohori in Arcadia was wiped off the map - the church of Santa Maria was all that remained'.