Greece Thanks To The Egnatia Odos Motorway
VIA EGNATIA WAS CONSTRUCTED between 146-120 B.C., on the ruins of an ancient pre-Roman road that ran along the Adriatic countries and reached the Aegean. It was later stretched from Evros to Byzantium and the whole road, from Rome to Constantinople, was named after Gnaeus Egnatius, who ordered its construction.
Via Egnatia is first cited in Strabo’s “Geographica”, between 40 B.C. and 10 AD. It was also mentioned a few years earlier, in the year 59-58 B.C., in Cicero’s work as via militaris (military road), which reached Thessaloniki and was used by orators to approach the city. Part of the road, the section between Neapoli (today’s Kavala) and Thessaloniki, was used by the Apostle Paul, circa 40 AD., during his trip to Greece.
Via Egnatia was a road of the highest European stand¬ards. It was paved and had signs, military camps, horse changing stations, bridges, and exits to cities, lateral roads, much like the Romans roads in Bretagne, Italy, Spain or Greece. In other words, it was constructed according to Roman specifications. An example is given by Strabo, who mentioned that when the road reached his village, the Romans “cut hills and created soft road curves”, to allow the passage of heavy-loaded carriages.
The minimum width of Via Egnatia was ten Roman feet (around three metres), which rose to five metres when the road cut across major cities. Roman travelogues inform us that it had signs indicating distances between cities (civitates), inns (mansiones), resting areas and horse-changing stations (mutatiae). From the Adriatic shore to Thessaloniki, the distance was around 400 km (535 Roman feet), and from Thessaloniki to Evros another 400. The road had distance indicators, meaning that it had been measured based on a 100 feet distance. For every mile, it had large steles indicating the distance and location of the specific spot.
Via Egnatia was repaired many times until 300 A.D. In 6 1270 A.D., it was mentioned as the major road connecting Durres to Constantinople, and up until the 16th century, it was the main trade road used for the passage of tribes, religions, social classes, ideologies, customs, ethics, economies, mentalities and perceptions.
All along the Via Egnatia, one met different groups of migrating pack men, artisans, villagers or workers, from Western Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, etc, in search of better life conditions. Some of the groups were made of building workers, including all specialties, from builders to carpenters. These wandering hordes were mainly seasonal workers, but some were professional thieves and beggars, known as the Kravarites.
The Romans first used the Via Egnatia for military purposes, but soon it became the main artery that connected the Adriatic Sea to the Pontus Euxinus. It operated parallel and competitively, one would say, to the other great ancient coastal road, which connected Italy to the Northern Aegean, up to the Pontus Euxinus – history repeats itself.
Via Egnatia played a major role in the Byzantine and post-Byzantine years. Painters and mosaic artists departed from Constantinople towards different directions, using all kinds of transport means, by land or sea. Artists used the Via Egnatia to transport their works, be it manuscripts, portable icons, enamels, small artifacts, gold, silver and bronze works, or embroideries. At the same time, during the meso-Byzantine period and later on, Thessaloniki was a centre of artistic creation and the starting point for most missions to the northern, western and southern populations.
Today, the modern Egnatia Odos traverses Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace, from the port of Igoumenitsa, which is connected by ferry to Italy, to Kipoi in Evros, on the Greek Turkish borders.
On a national level, Egnatia odos will open the door to new investments in the transport (e.g. trade centers), industry and tourism sectors, and will act as an axis for develop¬ment in Northern Greece. On a European level, Egnatia will connect the industrial centers of the West with those of the East. Its construction will increase investment opportunities in transport, industry and tourism. That is why the road is financed to a large extent by ED funds. This means that Thessaloniki, which for 1500 years was the capital and commercial centre of the region, will once again regain its commercial, cultural and financial status, lost 90 years ago with the creation of the Balkan national states. Egnatia odos also functions as a major road artery for transports around the Balkan Peninsula and in Southeast Europe. The motor way is connected to European Routes IV (Berlin-Sophia-Thessaloniki), IX (Helsinki to Alexandroupolis) and X (Vienna-Belgrade-Thessaloniki).
Thanks to the Egnatia odos motorway and its lateral roads, Greece will actively participate in the creation of new peripheral markets in the Balkans and will efficiently contribute to ED enterprising initiatives, from and to the Balkans. With the opening of the Balkan market, Greek businesses will be able to export their products and services to new markets, as they have repeatedly demanded in the past. The same roads can also be used to transport tourists to the Aegean coastline, a popular tourist destination for the Balkan Peninsula and Central Europe, benefiting the country’s economy.
The Egnatia odos motorway, which crosses Greece from West (Igoumenitsa) to East, near the Turkish borders, runs into some very interesting regions of the country.