Αιδηψός

Aidipsos, known in modern Greek as Edipsos, is a coastal village of enduring significance on the northwestern shore of the island of Evia. With a land area of approximately 115.461 square kilometres and an elevation of thirty metres above sea level, it occupies the western foothills of Mount Telethrio, some eighteen kilometres southwest of Istiaia and 125 kilometres northwest of Chalkida. Since the 2011 local government reform, Edipsos has been a municipal unit within the municipality of Istiaia-Aidipsos, following its earlier establishment in 1997 by the merger of the former municipality Loutra Aidipsou with the neighbouring communities of Agios and Gialtra. According to the national census of 2011, the municipal unit recorded 1,249 permanent residents, while the wider village environs—including the famed spa quarter of Loutra Edipsos—hosted a total of 6,141 inhabitants. This spatial and demographic profile underscores Edipsos’s dual identity as both a broadly defined administrative region and a compact village renowned for its mineral springs.

The story of Edipsos’s spa culture dates to deep antiquity, with thermal springs that have been in continuous human use for over 20,000 years. Eighty of Greece’s 752 recorded hot springs lie within the bounds of the municipal unit, a concentration unrivalled elsewhere in the country. These waters, rich in minerals and ranging in temperature from cool to scalding, have drawn visitors since classical times, when the town was known as Aedepsus. By the late Republic of Rome, Lucius Cornelius Sulla reputedly sought relief for his ailments here, and the thermal baths remained a celebrated destination through successive eras of Byzantine and Ottoman rule. In modern European history, names such as Sir Winston Churchill, Eleftherios Venizelos, Theodoros Deligiannis and Georgios Theotokis attest to the springs’ enduring appeal, while the more cosmopolitan figure of Aristotelis Onassis, accompanied by Maria Callas, lent the locale an air of glamour. Poets and playwrights such as Kostis Palamas and Marika Kotopouli also found inspiration in Edipsos’s soothing waters and verdant hillsides.

Archaeological remnants of ancient Aedepsus lie scattered amid the modern spa establishments of Loutra Edipsos. Visitors can discern vestiges of Roman bathing complexes and foundations of Hellenistic structures, quietly testifying to the settlement’s role as a therapeutic centre over more than two millennia. These ruins are preserved within a landscape where palm-fringed lanes and cobbled courtyards lead from one spa to the next. The current spa infrastructure ranges from traditional Ottoman-influenced hammams to contemporary wellness centres, each exploiting the same subterranean springs that sustained the town for generations. Treatments combining hydrotherapy with modern physiotherapy draw a steady clientele from across Greece and abroad, while the surrounding olive groves and cypress-dotted slopes of Mount Telethrio invite gentle hikes that conclude in panoramic views of the Aegean.

At the heart of the village proper stands the basilica-style Metropolitan Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, completed in 1860 and inaugurated in 1872. Its whitewashed walls and tiled roofs stand in contrast to the verdant backdrop of low hills. Every August 15, the feast day of the Dormition is marked by a solemn procession of the icon, followed by communal festivities in the village square. Nearby, on a modest elevation behind the cemetery, the Church of St. Nicholas bears witness to Edipsos’s survival under Ottoman rule. Its deliberately low entrance doorway, fashioned before 1800, was designed to deter plunderers, whose raids in the medieval period posed a constant threat. A short ascent above the village leads to the Church of Prophet Elias, where visitors are rewarded with a sweeping vista of the northern Evian peninsula and the sheltered cove that embraces the spa town.

The religious landscape extends beyond these principal edifices. On the slopes of Mount Telethrio lies the Church of Agia Paraskevi, a more recent masonry that stands adjacent to the site of an older sanctuary. The devotion to Saint Paraskevi is manifest in the number of local women who bear her name and in the church’s role as a pilgrimage site on her feast day. Scattered around the municipal unit are numerous chapels dedicated to saints revered in the Greek Orthodox calendar: Zoodochos Pigi, Agios Athanasios, Agios Spyridon, Agios Konstantinos and the Holy Apostles, among others. Iconostases honouring Agia Marina, Vlasios, Fanourios, the Holy Trinity and John the Forerunner Apokefalistis further enrich the devotional geography. On the eves of these saints’ feast days, locals gather for candlelit services and the ancient rites of blessing, forging a continuity between today’s community and generations past.

Edipsos’s built heritage is not confined to ecclesiastical structures. Adjacent to the newer church of the Dormition stands the medieval “Tower of Edipsos,” commonly called Fragoulas. This square, Venetian-style fortification dates to the fourteenth century and is traditionally associated with Baroness Petronella Tokko, Lady of Edipsos and the nearby Lichades islands from 1383 until her departure in 1410. Her tenure ended amid escalating pirate incursions that plagued northern Evia, culminating in a devastating raid in 1414. Both the ancient baths and the village were laid waste, and captives were carried off to slave markets in North Africa and the Levant. Today the tower’s nearly intact walls and arched embrasures recall a time when Edipsos stood at the crossroads of Aegean maritime powers and vulnerable to the era’s lawlessness.

The village centre itself preserves a network of narrow streets lined with residences whose architecture reflects both vernacular traditions and the wealth generated by the spas. Stone courtyards, painted shutters and flower-filled balconies enliven the facades, while shaded arcades of plane and orange trees offer respite from summer heat. In spring, local customs such as the Burning of the Wreaths on St. John of the Thyme (Ai Giannis tou Riganas) recall agrarian rituals tied to the landscape’s aromatic herbs. Shrove Tuesday brings a jubilant celebration of dance in the square, where villagers clad in traditional costumes perform age-old steps to the rhythms of clarinet and lute.

Education and communal amenities reinforce Edipsos’s role as more than a seasonal resort. A primary school established at the dawn of the twentieth century perches on a hillside overlooking the village, serving generations of local children. Adjacent to the schoolyard stands the kindergarten, while the broader municipal unit maintains basic services including a post office and municipal offices housed in the former town hall. Despite the influx of visitors drawn by the spas, the year-round population retains a close-knit character, sustained by family-run guesthouses, tavernas specialising in fresh seafood and olive-oil–drizzled meze, and small shops selling local honey, thyme-scented soap and hand-woven textiles.

The beach of Agios Nikolaos lies to the west of Edipsos’s shoreline, its pebbly sands lapped by crystal-clear waters. A church dedicated to the same saint occupies a promontory above the shore and serves as the focal point for the Epiphany ceremony on January 6. On that day, the sanctification of the waters draws both worshippers and casual onlookers, as a priest casts a cross into the sea and young men dive in to retrieve it. The ritual connects Edipsos’s embrace of both sea and spring, of sacred and secular, in a maritime landscape that has shaped local identity for centuries.

Access to Edipsos from the Greek mainland remains remarkably straightforward. Frequent intercity buses depart Athens for the port of Arkitsa, where a car ferry operates hourly crossings to Loutra Edipsos. The ferry ticket, priced at approximately €3.30 per person, is purchased separately from the bus fare. The short sea voyage offers views of the Lichades islets and the northern spurs of Evia, providing an anticipatory glimpse of Mount Telethrio’s wooded slopes before disembarking within easy reach of the spas.

From its prehistoric thermal springs to the Venetian tower, from its consecrated chapels to the convivial rhythms of village life, Edipsos represents a rare convergence of natural endowment and human endeavour. The community’s size—modest by modern standards—belies the scope of its influence: a healing centre for Roman generals, a diplomatic haven for twentieth-century statesmen, an emblem of Greek spa culture that endures in the European imagination. Its cobbled lanes, shaded groves and azure sea form the backdrop to a living tradition of hospitality, in which every fountain and fountain house, every church and chapel, every stone façade and tiled roof, bears testimony to the continuity of place.

In retracing the layers of Edipsos’s story—geological, historical, architectural, spiritual and social—one encounters not a static relic but a dynamic community that remains firmly rooted in its past even as it embraces the present. The hot springs of Edipsos are more than a resource; they are a symbol of resilience, a source of renewal for body and mind. To visit Edipsos is to partake in a continuum of wellbeing that stretches back millennia and to discover a village where every element—from the church bells at dawn to the chattering of sparrows in the olive trees—plays a part in an ongoing narrative of healing, faith and conviviality.