Laconia

Laconia has a Mediterranean climate with warm winters and hot summers. Snow is rare on the coast throughout the winter but is very common in the mountains.

The theater of ancient Sparta with modern Sparti and Taygetus in the background

Evidence of Neolithic settlement in southern Laconia has been found during excavations of the Alepotrypa cave site.[2] In ancient Greece, this was the principal region of the Spartan state. For much of classical antiquity the Spartan sphere of influence expanded to Messenia, whose inhabitants (the Helots) were enslaved. Significant archaeological recovery exists at the Vaphio-tomb site in Laconia. Found there is advanced Bronze Age art as well as evidence of cultural associations with the contemporaneous Minoan culture on Crete.[3] Laconia was at war with the Kingdom of Macedonia and saw several battles; at the end of the Mycenaean period, the population of Laconia sharply declined.[4] From the early-2nd century BC until 395 AD, it was a part of the Roman Empire.

Palace of Mystras

In the medieval period, Laconia formed part of the Byzantine Empire. Following the Fourth Crusade, it was gradually conquered by the Frankish Principality of Achaea. In the 1260s, however, the Byzantines recovered Mystras and other fortresses in the region and managed to evict the Franks from Laconia, which became the nucleus of a new Byzantine province. By the mid-14th century, this evolved into the Despotate of Morea, held by the last Greek ruling dynasty, the Palaiologoi. With the fall of the Despotate to the Ottomans in 1460, Laconia was conquered as well.

With the exception of a 30-year interval of Venetian rule, Laconia remained under Ottoman control until the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence of 1821. Following independence, Sparta was selected as the capital of the modern prefecture, and its economy and agriculture expanded. With the incorporation of the British-ruled Ionian Islands into Greece in 1864, Elafonissos became part of the prefecture. After World War II and the Greek Civil War, its population began to somewhat decline, as people moved from the villages toward the larger cities of Greece and abroad.

In 1992, a devastating fire ruined the finest olive crops in the northern part of the prefecture, and affected the area of Sellasia along with Oinountas and its surrounding areas. Firefighters, helicopters and planes battled for days to put out the horrific fire.

The Mani portion along with Gytheio became famous in Greece for filming episodes of Vendetta, broadcast on Mega Channel throughout Greece and abroad on Mega Cosmos.

In early 2006, flooding ruined olive and citrus crops as well as properties and villages along the Eurotas river. In the summer 2006, a terrible fire devastated a part of the Mani Peninsula, ruining forests, crops, and numerous villages.

As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, regional unit Laconia was created out of the former prefecture Laconia (Greek: Νομός Λακωνίας). The prefecture had the same territory as the present regional unit. At the same time, the municipalities were reorganised, according to the table below.[5]

• Epidavros Limira Province – Molaoi
• Gytheio Province – Gytheio
• Lacedaemonia Province – Sparti
• Oitylo Province – Areopoli

Note: Provinces no longer hold any legal status in Greece.

• FLY FM 89,7 (Sparta).
• POLITIA 90,7 – ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ 90.7 (Sparta)
• Radio Sparti – 92.7 FM (Sparta)
• Radiofonias Notias Lakonias (Southern Laconia Radio) – 93.5 (Gytheio)
• Star FM – 94.7

• Ellada TV – UHF 43, Sparta
• TV Notias Lakonias – Molaoi

• Λακωνικός Τύπος
• Ελεύθερη Άποψη
• Νέα Σπάρτη
• Παρατηρητής της Λακωνίας