Andros trivia: 65 amazing facts about this Greek island!

Andros is one of the most famous and historic Greek islands. It was one of the islands with the most growth during the early years of Greece!

So let’s dive into some trivia and facts!

Andros is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago
About 10 km (6 mi) southeast of Euboea
And about 3 km (2 mi) north of Tinos
It is nearly 40 km (25 mi) long
Its greatest breadth is 16 km (10 mi)
It is for the most part mountainous
With many fruitful and well-watered valleys
The municipality, which includes the island Andros and several small, uninhabited islands, has an area of 380 km2 (146.719 sq mi)
The largest towns are Andros (town), Gavrio, Batsi, and Ormos Korthiou
The island is famous for its Sariza spring at Apoikia
There the water flows from a sculpted stone lion’s head
Palaeopolis, the ancient capital, was built into a steep hillside
And the breakwater of its harbor can still be seen underwater
Andros also offers great hiking options
Andros is a separate regional unit of the South Aegean region
And the only municipality of the regional unit
As part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Andros was created out of part of the former Cyclades Prefecture
At the same reform, the current municipality Andros was created out of the 3 former municipalities
The province of Andros was one of the provinces of the Cyclades Prefecture
Its territory corresponded with that of the current regional unit Andros
It was abolished in 2006
Andros, the capital, on the east coast, had about 2,000 inhabitants in 1900
The island had about 18,000 inhabitants in (1900)
The 1991 census read 8,781
According to the latest Greek census of 2011, the town of Andros still numbered 1,665 inhabitants
And the island’s total was 9,221
The island is composed of the municipal units of Andros (town) (pop. 3,901), Korthio (pop. 1,948), and Ydrousa (pop. 3,372)
The north of Andros has a small Arvanite community
The name of the island in Arvanitika is Ε̰νdρα, Ëndra
During the Final Neolithic (over 5,000 years ago), Andros had a fortified village on its west coast
Which archaeologists have named Strofilias, after the plateau on which it was built
Strofilias was related to the “Attica-Kephala” culture, and predates the Cycladic culture of the Bronze Age
It was an important maritime center and one of the earliest examples of fortification in Greece
It is notable for rock carvings on its walls, which include animals such as jackals, goats, deer, fish and dolphins, as well as a depiction of a flotilla of ships
The island in ancient times contained an Ionian population, perhaps with an admixture of Thracian ancestry
Though it has been proposed that Andros was originally dependent on Eretria
By the 7th century BC it had become sufficiently prosperous to send out several colonies, to Chalcidice (Acanthus, Stageira, Argilus, Sane)
The ruins of Palaeopolis, the ancient capital, are on the west coast
The town possessed a famous temple, dedicated to Dionysus
In 480 BC, it supplied ships to Xerxes and was subsequently harried by the Greek fleet
Though enrolled in the Delian League, it remained disaffected towards Athens
And in 477 had to be coerced by the establishment of a cleruchy on the island
Nevertheless, in 411 Andros proclaimed its freedom
And in 408 withstood an Athenian attack
As a member of the second Delian League, it was again controlled by a garrison and an archon
In the Hellenistic period, Andros was contended for as a frontier-post by the two naval powers of the Aegean Sea, Macedon and Ptolemaic Egypt
In 333, it received a Macedonian garrison from Antipater
In 308 it was freed by Ptolemy I of Egypt
In the Chremonidean War (266–263) it passed again to Macedon after a battle fought off its shores
The Ptolemaic empire was at its height, with a considerable fleet stationed at Andros
In 200, it was captured by a combined Roman, Pergamene and Rhodian fleet
And remained a possession of the Kingdom of Pergamon until the dissolution of that kingdom in 133 BC
Then it was granted to Rome
On May 10, 1821, Theophilos Kairis, one of the leading Greek intellectuals, declared the island’s participation in the Greek War of Independence by raising the Greek flag at the Church of St George
At this time, a famous heartfelt speech, or “ritoras” (ρήτορας), inspired shipowners and merchants to contribute funds to build a Greek Navy to combat the Ottomans
At the end of the war, the island became part of the independent Kingdom of Greece
Following Independence, Andros became a major centre of Greek shipping
In this it was helped by the arrival of refugees from Psara
And the decline of other traditional shipping centres such as Galaxeidi and Hydra Island
Andrian merchants were particularly active in the grain trade from central and eastern Europe conducted from the Danube estuary
Initially locally constructed, Andrian ships were later built at Syros
Especially as shipping began the transit to steam
By 1914, Andrian-registered shipping was second in Greece in terms of capacity
After World War I, the local registered ships rose from 25 (1921) to 80 before World War II
The losses suffered during the latter, as well as the internationalization of shipping and emigration of the ship-owning families to Piraeus and London, signalled the end of Andrian shipping