Ancient Abia In the location where Paliochora is located today, the Homeric city of
Ire (Ιρή) is supposed to have stood (
Iliad I 150 and I 292). The 2nd century traveller
Pausanias mentioned in his
Description of Greece that the city Ire was renamed
Abia by
Cresphontes, king of
Messene, after
Abia, the nursemaid of his great-grandfather
Hyllus, son of
Heracles. Abia was disputed between the Messenians and the
Spartans. Abia became a member of the
Achaean League in 181 BCE. In the city was a temple of
Asclepius. It continued to be a place of some importance down to the reign of
Hadrian, as we learn from an extant inscription of that period. After Pausanias' time, Abia was not mentioned in sources. It was probably destroyed during barbarian invasions.
Later period In the early 15th century, the
Venetians built the castle of
Mantineia at the location of the ancient city. It was the seat of the barony with the same name. Mantineia was abandoned by its inhabitants to escape pirate raids, and they settled in the inland village of
Megali Mantineia. The ruined castle town received the name
Palaiochora. In 1775, the Church of the Dormition was built at the site of the temple of Asclepius. From the mid-19th century, the inhabitants of Megali Mantineia began to settle in the beach area again, in the settlements
Palaiochora,
Archontiko and
Kopanoi (the modern
Akrogiali). Palaiochora became the seat of the community of Megali Mantineia in 1924. In 1926 both the settlement Palaiochora and the community were renamed to Avia. In 1998, the community Avia merged with 7 other communities to form the new municipality Avia, with its seat in
Kampos. ==Subdivisions==