Lake Mornu broadcasts SOS – “The houses appeared” after the water level dropped in the village of Kallio

The level in Mornos has subsided considerably, with experts ringing the alarm of the danger of water shortage. Callio’s submerged houses surfaced after the noticeable drop in water level. The stone-built village of Kallio is located on the bottom of Lake Mornos in Fokida, which was abandoned by its inhabitants to create the artificial lake to water Athens. Scenes taken from a film are reminiscent of the impressive photographs from the immersed village next to Lake Mornos in the Dorid of the Regional Unity Fokidos. The lake’s water level fell, resulting in many of the submerged homes coming back to the surface, giving an impressive sight. Callio is a semi-mountain village at an altitude of 390 meters. It was formerly located in the site, in which the artificial lake resulting from the construction of the Mornos dam was created in 1980. In the last two years the level of Mornos, has retreated over 35 meters and another about 18 just in the last year, according to local residents. In the village of Callio, residents daily observe the lake decline rapidly, while buried in the water buildings of the village they left, they appear again on the surface. Several residents moved mainly to Athens and Lidoriki after the creation of the artificial lake. Residents were compensated by the state and abandoned their homes by building the new Callio at a higher point, above the banks of the lake while the old settlement was covered by the waters of the lake, which also covered the church of Evangelistria. To the northwest of today’s village is the “source of Kallios” from which the ancient Castle was watered, where ruins of the church of Agios Nikolaos are preserved. Another historical building that sank in the waters is the stone (probably Venetian) vaulted bridge in the location “Hanias of Velochovos” mentioned in the memoirs of Makrigiannis as well as the settlement of Hania Stenos. The ancient Callion In ancient times Callion or ancient Kallipolis was located northwest of Lidoriki, in the position “Steno”, where the castle of Velhovos was later built. Thucydides mentions the Callies and their city as the easternmost part of the Aetolian tribe of the Ofiones. Callion is not excluded from being an administrative center of all the Ofionians, according to the testimonies of Pausanias and Stephen Byzantium (called the city of Sollion and Facion). In the Hellenistic period, according to epigraphic testimonies, the city was called Callipolis. Although traces of habitation are preserved from the Geometric times, Kallipolis was inhabited organized from the 4th century BC. Its boom may be linked to the development of the Aetolic Confederacy. He was in a particularly strategic position and perhaps for this he suffered total destruction during the Galan expedition in 279 BC. After the Gauls campaign, the city was rebuilt. Several Callipolites, as evidenced by epigraphical data, rose to offices of the Aetolian Confederacy. The excavations also revealed a thriving city, with a state organization, sacred and economic boom. But residents seem to have been actively involved in the political conflicts of the 2nd century B.C.E. regarding the position they had to take as regards the Romans. After the battle of Pydna (167 BC) it appears that Callion is destroyed by fire, possibly due to arson. In the 9th century it is referred to as the seat of the bishop Lidoriki, who succeeded Callio as an administrative center of the mountainous Dorid. In the 14th and 15th centuries only the castle of Lidoric, which is probably identified with the medieval ruins of the buildings and fortification, preserved in the place of the ancient citadel, is mentioned. Archaeological findings After being systematically excavated in 1977 – 1979 by professor of archaeology Petros Themeli, the city’s public buildings and cemeteries have been flooded by the waters of the artificial lake of Mornos. However, the fortification precinct, the sanctuaries of Demeter and Daughter and possibly of Ilithyia or Artemis Ilithyia, the congressional, the market, theatre and necropolises were revealed. In the famous “House of the archive” some 600 clay fillings were discovered. Several of the mobile findings are exhibited in the Lidoriki Archaeological Collection, while some have been transferred to the Amfissa Archaeological Museum.