| According
to the most reliable resources, Keramidi has a history
of 3 centuries or maybe some more. Something that is
commonly agreed upon by all researchers is the reason
why this village has been established. This was nothing more
than the pressure and persecutions that Turks had
exercised against Greeks in the period of Turkish
occupation. Due to all these reasons, some of the repressed
families of the nearby villages, together with other
fugitives or people under the law harassment, had
found a perfect shelter in this distant place, as the
inaccessible forest provided the right coverage. While
time was passing by, this lovely shelter became a
permanent settlement. The persecutions of citizens
from the nearby villages due to assassination of the
Turkish ruler of the region, helped towards this end
too.
The
name of the village, Keramidi which means
"adobe", comes from the material that was
used in the construction of the first
residences. These were located somewhere in the east
of the current village location and far away from each
other in order not to be identifiable by the Turkish
authorities. This point of view is supported by the fact that
many ruined base settlements and graves have been
found in nearby locations.
Ar.
Papachatzopoulos, in his extended folkloric research
("Thessaly chronicles", 1931), accredits all
these findings in the ancient town of Casthanaea
(reference-1,
reference-2).
This ancient town is also referenced by the great
Greek historian of the classical era, Herodotus, who speculates that this town was covering
a large area and it was consisted of smaller
settlements. However, this position is merely
questioned by other researchers (but without being
excluded), as the town of Casthanaea should have been
placed close to the old saved castle, above the
Ai-Yannis coast. This castle is believed to be existent
from the Hellenistic or Macedonian era. According to
J. Kordatos ("History of Volos and Agia
province"), the long distance of the old
settlements' findings from the castle, proofs that the
ancient town of Casthanaea is placed several kilometres
in south-east direction, in the coasts of old
destroyed village
of Mitzela (nearby the village of Pouri).
There are also written sources referring to the
village with the name of "Ferres-Keramidi" (1515), according
to which the village was supposed to be
"kislas" (grassland) of the shepherds
of village Velestino (Ferres). |