Greek pictures - Thessaloniki, Western Macedonia, Meteora. Travel Greece with Photos by Andrey K. Pella - Macedonian Capital Pella Tennis
Pella (Greek Πέλλα) - the capital of Ancient Macedonia from the end of the 5th to the middle of the 2nd century. BC Birthplace of Alexander the Great.
For the first time, the name of Pella was heard by Herodotus when describing the campaign of the Persian king Xerxes against Greece in 480 BC. e.; Herodotus called Pella a city located in the region of Bottia, inhabited by the Botti tribe. Stefan of Byzantium noted in his geographical treatise: formerly Pella in Macedonia was called Bounomos or Bounomeia. During the reign of the Macedonian king Alexander I (498-454 BC), the lands of Macedonia rapidly expanded to the north and east due to the displacement and absorption of the Thracian and other tribes. Under the son of Alexander I, King Perdikka II, Pella was already part of Macedonia, and the Botti tribe moved to the peninsula of Halkidiki. When the Thracian king Sitalk invaded Macedonia in the 2nd half of the 5th c. BC e., the Macedonians took refuge in a few fortresses, making partisan attacks against the enemy. Perhaps it was then that Perdikka II decided to make Pella, located in a protected place, almost in the center of Emathia, his capital. It is not known who exactly and when moved the capital of Macedonia from the sacred Aegis to Pella, but at least the son of Perdikkas, the Macedonian king Archelaus (413-399 BC), built a luxurious palace there, for the painting of which he invited a famous Greek artist Zeuxis. Euripides was buried here. At the beginning of the IV century. BC e. Pella became the largest city of Macedonia, the place where its kings lived, although the former capital of Egi continued to carry out ritual functions. The Macedonians at that time called relatively small fortresses cities, and, unlike the rest of the Greeks, they themselves lived mainly in the countryside. The heyday of Pella, judging by the archaeological finds, came at the end of the 4th century. BC e., under the successors of Alexander the Great. The great conqueror himself, after taking the throne, stayed in Macedonia for a few months. The only description of the city in the II century. BC e. left Titus Livius: “The Consul left Pydna with the whole army, the next day he was at Pella and set up camp a mile from the city, stood there for several days, examining the location of the city from all sides, and made sure that the kings of Macedonia had not settled here in vain: Pella stands on a hill looking at a winter sunset; swamps around it, impassable neither in summer nor in winter - they are fed by river floods. The fortress of Fakos rises like an island among the swamps in the place where they come closest to the city; it stands on a huge embankment, capable of withstanding the weight of the walls and not suffering from the moisture of the swamps surrounding it. From afar, it seems that the fortress is connected to the city wall, although in fact they are separated by a moat with water, and connected by a bridge, so that the enemy would not be able to approach, and any prisoner imprisoned by the king could not escape except through the bridge, which is easier protect everything. There, in the fortress, there was also the royal treasury…” After the Roman conquest of Macedonia in the 2nd c. BC e. Pella for some time remained the center of one of the 4 administrative districts into which the Romans divided Macedonia ...
The expedition to the enterprises of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region has taken place! From November 21 to 26, I visited about a dozen different enterprises of the Northern capital and its environs, where I was lucky not only to make photo reports, but also to interview. The first enterprise that I examined was the Pella Leningrad shipbuilding plant, located in the city of Otradnoye. About him and will be discussed today.
The main products of the Pella plant are new generation tugs, modern, comfortable and reliable, because they successfully work in all major ports and naval bases in Russia. Individual specimens can be found abroad: in Latvia, Lithuania, even in Italy.
Practically in each of my Severodvinsk reports there is a tugboat manufactured by Pella. The tugs of the Northern Fleet "Viktor Tikhonov" and "Anatoly Tarasov", as well as the tug of the Severodvinsk enterprise "Zvyozdochka" "Alexander Zryachev" are real "workhorses" and perform the most difficult tasks, including the withdrawal of ships under construction and repair from the waters of the enterprises "Zvezdochka" "," Sevmash "and the White Sea Naval Base.
The enterprise is located on two sites - old and new. The old one is located on the territory of the former Pellinsky Palace, where the plant management, the Pella-Mash machine-building division and the Pella-Fiord (fiberglass shipbuilding) are located. The new site is located on the border of the city and the region in the village of Sapernoye.
The old site is located on the territory of the former Pellinsky Palace, built under Catherine II. Today, from the palace, dismantled to the ground on the orders of Paul I, only the carriage and stable building and the wing of the Postal Station remain.
4. Carriage-stable building and wing of the Post Station of the Pellinsky Palace Complex.
In the 30s of the twentieth century, a trailer plant of the Ministry of Forestry of the USSR was built on this territory, and in 1950 shipbuilding was organized on it, after which tugboats, high-speed boats, pilot boats and other small vessels became the main products of the plant.
In 1957, the company was renamed the Leningrad Shipbuilding Plant. The capacities of the enterprise have grown over time, new directions have developed. So, in the 1960s, a new line of fiberglass shipbuilding appeared at the plant. The first examples of such vessels were the Nadezhda catchers for the Vostok fishing base, hydrographic vessels of the Kaira type, working boats Bekas, light vessels of all domestic deep-sea vehicles for the study of the World Ocean.
5. Boat project LM 4-87.
In 1965, the enterprise, as a pilot production, was transferred to the Central Research Institute of Shipbuilding Technology, and the historical name "Pella" - the Leningrad Shipbuilding Plant "Pella" - was returned to it.
Since the 70s, with the direct participation of the Central Research Institute of the Customs Union, the production of technological equipment for the shipbuilding industry has been mastered here: painting machines, pipe bending machines, thermal cutting machines for metal.
In 1992, the enterprise was privatized and became the Leningrad Shipbuilding Plant Pella Open Joint Stock Company (since June 21, 1996, the Leningrad Shipbuilding Plant Pella Open Joint Stock Company).
In 2012, the construction of a new site in the village of Saperny began, thanks to which it became possible to build ships and vessels with a greater length and draft and with more convenient launching.
6. New shipbuilding complex "Pella".
In 2016, the company leased the property of the Feodosia shipbuilding plant "More" (Crimea).
Today, Pella is a joint-stock company, which has 8 subsidiaries and affiliates, owns a territory of 33 hectares and assets sufficient to conduct a successful business.
First platform (old)
The construction of an order begins not only with sheet metal, but also with the receipt of the rest of the necessary equipment for the future vessel/ship.
7. PALFINGER PC 2300 loader crane stored in the warehouse for the future tug.
Then, in the hull assembly shop, the assembly of the structures of the future vessel begins.
8. Hull assembly shop. Here the assembly of large structures of the future vessel takes place.
9. Inside the hull assembly shop.
10. Factory management building. Also inside there is a dining room and a first-aid post with a massage room. Behind is a whole network of workshops for metalworking and assembly of machine tools.
After a large structure is assembled, it is transported to the workshop near the outfitting embankment. Finished blocks are transported from the hull assembly shop to the boathouse, where the finished hull is assembled from the blocks.
After completion of the ship's hull, its saturation with equipment and painting begins.
11. Project 16609 tugboat
The vessel is launched into the water with the help of trolleys and a transborder.
12. Construction of the tugboat project PE65. On the left, the rails of the transborder are visible.
Then the tugboat is brought to the platform in a high degree of readiness on slipway carts and lowered into the water along an inclined slipway.
13. Transfer rails. It is on them that the order is launched into the water.
14. Raid tug "Volchok" near the outfitting embankment of the enterprise. Its construction is carried out for the Navy.
15. Road tug "Volchok" and slipway shop.
16. Random guests.
On the current territory of the plant, there are restrictions on the draft of ships under construction no more than 3.54 m due to the rapids on the Neva fairway. Therefore, now the plant has the opportunity to build vessels of the technical fleet: tugboats, pilot boats and other special vessels, with a draft of not more than 4 m and a length of up to 50 m in the amount of 12 - 15 units. in year. Of these, according to government orders from various federal departments, the plant annually produces at least 5-9 ships.
17. Mast of the future tug.
Second site (new)
The construction of a new site began on July 16, 2012 in the village of Saperny, Leningrad Region, on the site between the St. Petersburg Otradnoye road and the Neva river embankment.
On the new section of the river. There are no restrictions on the rapids on the Neva, so Pella plans to organize serial construction and launching of up to 10 seagoing vessels a year there, up to 100 m long, up to 22 m wide, with a draft of up to 8 m. Including:
from special vessels of the technical fleet: tugboats of increased capacity of reinforced ice class, hydrographic and other special vessels, including for ensuring the operation of infrastructure facilities of the Northern Sea Route;
loans from the fishing fleet (vessels for longline fishing of bottom fish, mid-water trawlers, research vessels for branch institutes of the Federal Agency for Fishery), which should be built in Russia in accordance with paragraphs 1b and 2c of the List of Instructions of the President of the Russian Federation on the development of the fishery complex dated 21.03.2013. No. Pr613;
ships for the Russian Navy.
18.Administrative building on the territory of the new site.
On the new site of the Pella shipbuilding enterprise, the construction of ships is carried out in almost the same way as on the old one. It all starts with the delivery of sheet metal and equipment to the warehouse.
19. Multi-ton sheets of metal are moved through the body-working shop with the help of several overhead magnetic cranes.
20. Sheet metal waiting for processing
After the metal has arrived at the enterprise, work begins with it in the body-working shop.
21. Hull processing shop.
Metal sheets pass through dozens of different machines, after working with which an ordinary sheet turns into a part of a future vessel / ship.
22. SMT hydraulic press.
With the help of machines located in the body-working shop, a sheet of metal can be given almost any shape.
23. Boscert hydraulic press brake.
24. Sheet bending machine.
The length of the vessel is 63.8 m, width - 10.8 m, maximum draft - 3.8 m, speed - 12 knots, cruising range - 1 thousand miles, autonomy - 20 days, crew - 16 people, expedition members - 20 Human.
In the near future, our portal will publish an interview with the deputy director of the Pella enterprise. The interview will tell in detail about the work of the enterprise, orders, achievements, prospects and problems.
We return towards Veria to the crossing over Alyakmon, however, we do not cross the river, but turn left and drive along this road along the river to the monastery. Here, on the slope of the high bank of Alyakmon, at the foot of Mount Pieria, is located monastery of John the Baptist .
The history of the monastery is lost in the mists of time. It is known that here in the IX century. took monastic tonsure St. Clement of Ohrid, one of the "developers" of the Cyrillic alphabet. In the monastery, according to its own will, the head of the saint is kept as a relic.
By the XIV century. this region is falling into disrepair. At this time, the great educator St. Gregory Palamas and his disciples settled in the caves near the monastery. In the same years, St. Athanasius also passed through the monastery of the Forerunner, who later founded the monastery of the Great Meteor.
In the XVI century. Saint Dionysios, hegumen of the Philotheus Monastery, came to these places from the Holy Mount Athos, and founded here kinovia - a community monastery. Later, not wanting to give in to the demands of the inhabitants of Veria, who insisted that the saint become their bishop, Dionysius withdrew and subsequently founded the monastery of the Holy Trinity on Olympus, which today bears his name. Saint Nicephorus, the founder of the monastery in Zavoorda (region of Grevena), was a friend and associate of Saint Dionysius.
In total, the memory of twelve saints, one way or another connected with the monastery, is honored here. All of them visited the monastery, lived for a long time or a short time under the shadow of the monastery of John the Baptist.
After the uprising in Naousa in 1822, the Turks burned down all the monasteries in the area, including this one. However, the monks were able to hide the relics in time. When they returned, they found only scorched lands. It was possible to restore everything only by 1835. Today, the monastery has the appearance acquired at that time.
In front of the entrance to the monastery there is a gazebo with a source. Entering the gate inside the fortress walls of the monastery, we will find ourselves in the first monastery courtyard. Peacocks walk around here, and in the monastery shop you can buy everything you like. Moreover, during our arrival, the seller was not there, and it was possible to take the selected items, and throw the money for them into a box adapted for this. I bought here a pilgrim's guide and a CD with church hymns.
Beyond another gate is the second courtyard. There is a refectory and a synodal hall. To the left is the entrance to the cave. Farther away is the katholikon, the main temple. This is a three-nave basilica dedicated to the Beheading of the Holy Head of John the Baptist. To the left of the church is a spring; an arbor built above it serves today as a bell tower. Opposite the temple there is a wing with cells. The recently built terrace near the church offers a wonderful view of the Alyakmon River and the mountains.
If you go further along the low corridor, you can get into the western wing of the monastery. We have not been there and I do not know if this passage is accessible to visitors to the monastery. Monastic cells are located here, as well as a building where a seminary functioned for ten years until 1915. At the end is the old katholikon of the monastery, built in 1622.
Outside the monastery, in the west, there is a waterfall, and behind it are caves in which the holy inhabitants of the monastery lived, including Gregory Palamas.
The ancient Greek city of Pella is the capital of the legendary Macedonian kingdom and the birthplace of the famous commander Alexander the Great. The ruins of the ancient city are located a few kilometers from modern Pella and about 40 km from Thessaloniki.
The first mention of Pella is found in the writings of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. At the end of the 5th century BC. The Macedonian king Archelaus moved the capital from the sacred city of Aegis to Pella and built a luxurious palace here, the painting of which was entrusted to the famous ancient Greek artist Zeuxis. The city began to grow and develop rapidly, and at the beginning of the 4th century Pella was already the largest city in Macedonia. The city reached its peak during the reign of Philip and his famous son Alexander the Great. In 168 BC. Pella was conquered and plundered by the Romans. For some time, Pella remained the capital of one of the districts of the Roman province of Macedonia, but subsequently lost its status to Thessaloniki. Over time, the city fell into decay, and an earthquake in the 1st century BC. completely destroyed it.
Research and the first excavations of ancient Pella date back to the beginning of the 20th century, but large-scale systematic work began already in the 50s of the 20th century. During the excavations, a monumental palace complex was discovered - the residence of the Macedonian kings and, in fact, the ancient Pella itself, located somewhat south of the palace. The city was built in accordance with the urban planning system of the famous ancient Greek architect Hippodamus with rows of streets intersecting at right angles. In the center of the city was the urban Agora, surrounded by a colonnade and occupying an area of approximately 70,000 square meters, on the territory of which there were shops, workshops, administrative buildings, etc. Pella was also equipped with water supply and sewerage systems. Archaeologists have discovered numerous ruins of one- and two-story residential buildings (some of them have preserved pebble floor mosaics of stunning beauty), as well as the remains of fortress walls, the ruins of the city harbor (in ancient times, Pella was connected to the Thermaikos Gulf by a navigable lagoon) and ancient burials. Part of the archaeological site is now accessible to tourists.
The ruins of Ancient Pella are recognized as an important historical and archaeological monument and are under state protection. Excavations continue here and at the present time, and it is likely that new amazing discoveries await us in the future.
In 2009, the Archaeological Museum was opened on the territory of the excavations of ancient Pella, which is rightfully considered one of the best museums of its kind in Greece.
The ancient city of Pella, also known by the local name - Tabaqit-Fakhl, is known for its rich history. There are many interesting archaeological sites here, most of which belong to the Greco-Roman, Islamic and Byzantine periods (12-14 centuries AD). But some of the finds made here are among the oldest evidence of human culture. Excavations on the territory of Pella are still ongoing - the city is dearly loved by archaeologists as an interesting object for research.
Pella is located in the north of the Jordan Valley, not far from Amman. In the Greco-Roman era, the city was part of the Decapolis (Decapolis) - an association of ten economically and culturally developed cities.
The city of Pella owes its name to the city of the same name, in which Alexander the Great was born. As in the homeland of the commander, there were healing hot springs, so the soldiers of Alexander the Great gave the city the same name - Pella. But the city itself was founded long before the reign of Alexander the Great. Thanks to the unique archaeological finds, it can be argued that settled life already existed on the territory of Pella in the Paleolithic era. In the second millennium BC. Pella was already a city.
The main attraction of Pella is the ruins of a large Byzantine temple complex. It was built by Christians and was used for Christian worship, despite the established Islam in this region.
The ruins of a large ancient theater - the Odeon, are also a significant find of archaeologists. It was built in the 1st century AD. downtown. Near the Odeon, several ancient fountains have been preserved, of which the Roman Nymphaeum fountain deserves special attention. Among the Byzantine churches preserved in Pella, it is worth paying attention to the East and West. The Eastern Church is located on a high hill, from the observation deck of which there is an excellent view of the city - a place that is especially good for photography. The western church, which dates back to the 4th century AD, was badly damaged by the earthquake - all that remains of it are three columns that were part of the colonnade of the courtyard.
Also, tourists will see in ancient Pella such ancient monuments as: a residential quarter of the early Islamic period - streets, houses, shops; and the ruins of a mosque built during the Mamluk period.
Speaking about the rarest and most ancient monuments that tourists can see in Pella, it is worth noting the remains of the cities fortified for the defense of the Bronze and Iron Ages; artifacts that relate to the Old and New Testaments; traces of the Chalcolithic human settlement (4th century BC). As a result of modern excavations carried out not so long ago, evidence was found that ancient settlements existed in Pella 10 thousand years ago.
An excursion to the ancient city of Pella, in which everything is literally saturated with antiquity, antiquity, will remain in your memory for a long time.