Antiquity The region of Trikala has been inhabited since
prehistoric times. The first indications of permanent settlement have been uncovered in the cave of Theopetra, and date back to approx. 49,000 BC.
Neolithic settlements dating back to 6,000 BC have been uncovered in Megalo Kefalovriso and other locations. The city of Trikala is built on the ancient city of Trikka or Trikke, which was founded around the 3rd millennium BC and took its name from the nymph Trikke, daughter of
Peneus, or according to others, daughter of the river god
Asopus. The ancient city was built at a defensive location in between the local hill and the river Lithaios. The city became an important center in antiquity and it was considered to be the birthplace and main residence of the healing god
Asclepius. The city exhibited one of the most important and ancient of Asclepius' healing temples, called
asclepieia. The city is mentioned in
Homer's
Iliad as having participated in the
Trojan War with thirty ships under Asclepius' sons
Machaon and
Podalirius. In the
Mycenean period, the city was the capital of a kingdom, and later it constituted the main center of the Thessalian region of Estaiotis, which occupied roughly the territory of the modern
Trikala Prefecture. In historical times, the city of Trikke and the surrounding area experienced prosperity. It fell to the
Achaemenid Persians in 480 BC, while ten years later it joined the Thessalian monetary union. In 352 BC it was united with the
Macedonia of
Philip II. The city became a location of hard battles between Macedonia and Rome. While
Philip V of Macedon and his son
Perseus tried to keep the city, after 168 BC it fell to the
Roman Republic.
Middle Ages While the area was considered to be firmly under the rule of the
Byzantine Empire, it was invaded nevertheless by a succession of raiders and nomadic tribes. Some of these tribes that raided the area include:
Goths (396),
Huns (447),
Slavs (577),
Bulgarians (986–1000),
Normans (1082/3),
Catalans (1309–1311). The current name of Trikala first appears in the 11th-century
Strategikon of Kekaumenos, where "Trikalitan
Vlachs" are mentioned, and then in the early 12th-century
Alexiad of
Anna Komnene. Later in the century, the Arab traveller and geographer
al-Idrisi recorded the town as "an important agrarian center with abundant vineyards and gardens" (T.E. Gregory). In 1348, Thessaly was conquered by
Stefan Dušan and incorporated into the newly established
Serbian Empire. The Serbian general
Preljub was made the region's governor, and established himself at Trikala. In 1359, Dušan's half-brother
Symeon Uroš established his court at Trikala, and in 1366/7 he founded the
Meteora monasteries nearby. Symeon was succeeded by his son
John Uroš, and he in turn by the local magnates
Alexios Angelos Philanthropenos and
Manuel Angelos Philanthropenos, who ruled until the Ottoman conquest of Thessaly in 1393/4.
Ottoman period Under Ottoman rule, the city was called
Tırhala. Its fortunes in the early period of Ottoman rule are unclear: it is reported as being part of a large
sanjak under Ahmed, the son of
Evrenos Bey, but in the early 15th century it formed part of the domain of
Turahan Bey, who brought in Muslim settlers and granted privileges to the local Greek population. Turahan and his son and successor,
Ömer Bey, erected many buildings in the city, helping it, in the words of the historian Alexandra Yerolimpos, to "[acquire] the appearance of a typical Ottoman town, with mosques,
medreses, a
hammam,
imaret,
khan and karwansaray extending beyond the citadel and the Varoussi (Varosh) quarter which remained Christian". As the administrative center of the local province (the
Sanjak of Trikala), the city attracted Muslim immigrants and had large Muslim and Jewish communities: in the 1454/5 census, the city had 2,453 inhabitants (251 Muslim families and 9 widows, and 212 Christian families and 73 widows); in 1506, the city numbered 3,100 inhabitants, with 260 Muslim, 310 Christian and 19 Jewish families; in 1520/38, the number had risen to 301 Muslim, 343 Christian, and 181 Jewish families. The 17th-century Ottoman traveller
Evliya Çelebi reports that the city had 2,300 houses divided into sixteen Muslim and eight Christian quarters (
mahalla); eight mosques, of which only the city's main mosque, the
Osman Shah Mosque built by
Mimar Sinan, survives today; four
hammams; six
tekkes; and the probably exaggerated number of 1,000 shops, although Evliya curiously does not mention the city's impressive
bezesten (covered market) which was demolished in the early 20th century. The town lost much of its Ottoman and medieval buildings in the early 20th century, particularly after it was rebuilt to a modern urban plan in the 1930s. Trikala today is a vibrant greek city, well known throughout Greece for its river that bisects the city center and also for the historic monuments and the picturesque old town. ==Sights==