Evropos

Ancient town

The modern village of Evropos is located approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) frοm the ancient town of Europos. Europos is most known for being the birthplace of Seleucus I Nicator, a general of the Kingdom of Macedon during the Wars of Philip II and the Wars of Alexander the Great, later founding the Seleucid Empire during the Wars of the Diadochi. Archaeological excavations were initiated in the area in 1989 and uncovered a large part of the ancient town's necropolis. However, the most notable artifact was discovered years earlier in 1966, in a field by accident during tillage. It is a Kouros sculpture dating back to the 6th century BCE and standing at a height of 1.80 metres (5.9 ft). It is the only Kouros to have been discovered in Northern Greece, though studies of the composition of the marble that was used for the sculpture suggest that it may have been constructed somewhere in the Cyclades. It is now on display at the Archaeological Museum of Kilkis.

Modern history

Evropos was known as Ašiklar before 1925 and it was located within the territory of the Ottoman Empire until 1913, when it was ceded to Greece in the Treaty of Bucharest that ended the Balkan Wars. Its inhabitants were Turkish up until 1923, when they were transferred to Turkey during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey following the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922. Greeks settled in their place, the majority of whom came from Bithynia, with 277 families coming from the village of Fulacık and 9 from the village of Kızderbent, while 83 families came from the village of Tsanto (now Çantaköy) in East Thrace and 7 families came from Pontus. In addition, 11 families from the nearby Aromanian village of Megala Livadia also moved there, as well as 2 families of Caucasus Greeks from Armenia. Most of the settlers from Fulacık, who formed the majority of Evropos' population, despite being ethnically Greek, spoke Turkish as their native language.

Evropos is a municipal unit of the municipality of Paionia, located in northern Greece in the Kilkis regional unit of the Central Macedonia region. Prior to the 2011 local government reform it used to be its own municipality. The municipal unit covers an area of 80.922 km² and is subdivided into five communities:

• Evropos
• Agios Petros
• Mesia
• Polypetro
• Toumpa