The city of Larissa
Larissa is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region, the 5th most populous in Greece and capital of the Larissa county. It is a principal agricultural center and a national transportation hub, linked by road and rail with the port of Volos, the cities of Thessaloniki and Athens. Larissa, within its municipality, has about 165,000 inhabitants. The city is famous for the too many squares and coffee shops (about 1 coffee shop for every ~100 inhabitants)!
The name Larissa (Λάρισα Lárīsa) is in origin a Pelasgian (pre-Greek) word for “fortress”. In mythology, the nymph Larissa was a daughter of the primordial man Pelasgus. The area around Larissa is agriculturally important since antiquity and was also known for its wild horses. The wild horse is actually the symbol of the city (and the local football club). Larissa is thought to be where the famous Greek physician Hippocrates and the famous philosopher Gorgias of Leontini died. The nearby town of Farsala is also said to be the Homeric Phthia, capital of the Kingdom of the Myrmidons, homeland of Achilles. Please, check out this nice presentation about the history of the city and the surrounding area in 10MB PowerPoint file or 2MB PDF file.
In case you are bored to find your way around the web, here is a small list of generic links:
