Larisa in old times

Mythology

The city is said in Greek mythology to have been founded By Acrisious, who was killed accidentally by his son, Perseus. There lived Peleus, the hero beloved by the gods and his son Achilles. However, the city is not mentioned by Homer,unless it should be identified with Agrissa of the Iliad. In mythology, the nymph Larissa, was a daughter of the primordial man Pelasgus.

Larisa Nymph

History

Antiquity

Traces of Paleolithic human settlement have been recovered from the area, but it was peripheral to areas of advanced culture. The area around Larissa was extremely fruitful. It was agriculturally important and in antiquity was known for its horses. The name Larissa, inherited from the Pelasgian settlers— an alternative name for the district was Pelasgiotis— was common to many Pelasgian towns: the ancient Greek word Larissa means "stronghold". The horse was an appropriate symbol of Thessaly, a land of plains, which was well-known for its horses.

Hellenistic and Roman period

It was in Larissa that Philip V of Macedonia signed in 197 BC a treaty with the Romans after his defeat at Cynoscephalae, and it was there also that Antiochus III, , the Great, won a great victory,192 BC. As the chief city of ancient Thessaly, Larissa was directly annexed by Philip II of Macedon in 344, and from then on Larissa was under Macedonian control; in 196 B.C. Larissa became an ally of Rome and was the headquartersof the Thessalian League.. Larissa is frequently mentioned in connection with the Roman civil wars which preceded the establishment of the empire and Pompey sought refuge there after the defeat of Pharsalus.

Middle Ages and Ottoman period

The town was taken from the Byzantine Empire by Bulgaria for a while in the later 10th century  and later held by Serbia. It was Frankish until 1400. In the 15th century, it came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, who called it “Yenişehr-i Fenar” (new town of the Phanariots). Until 1881, Larissa was the seat of a pasha in the vilayet of Yanya. In the 19th Century, the town produced leather, cotton, silk and tobacco. Fevers and agues were prevalent River and the death-rate were higher than the birth rate.      

Gravure of Larisa  in 1820

It was also renowned for the minarets of its mosques (four of which were stillin use in the early part of the 20th century) and the Muslims burial grounds.