According to some ancient writers,
Caranus, the legendary founder of the
Argead Dynasty (whose most famous member was
Alexander the Great), established the city of Edessa and made it the first capital of ancient
Macedon, Little is known about the fate of the city after 500 AD, but we know that its Greek bishop, Isidoros, participated in the
Ecumenical Council of 692. The city disappears from the sources thereafter, and re-emerges only in the 11th century, in the account of the
Bulgarian wars of Emperor
Basil II by the chronicler
John Skylitzes, with the Slavic name
Vodena ( in Greek). The Bulgarian historian
Vasil Zlatarski hypothesized that it was Vodena, and not
Vidin on the
Danube, that was a base of the
Cometopuli in their revolt against Byzantium. The city remained in Bagaš's hands at least until 1385. It was conquered by the
Ottoman commander
Evrenos Bey in the late 14th century, along with the rest of Macedonia. During the period of Ottoman rule, the Turkish and Muslim component of the town's population steadily increased. From the 1860s onwards, the town was a flashpoint for clashes between
Greeks and
Bulgarians. According to the Ottoman general census of 1881/1882–1893, the district of Edessa (Vodine) had a total population of 33,113, consisting of 14,962 Muslims, 14,208 Greek Patriarchists, and 3,943 Bulgarian Exarchists. After almost 500 years of Ottoman rule, Edessa was annexed by Greece on 18 October 1912 during the
First Balkan War, following the
Hellenic Army's military victory against the Ottomans in the
battle of Sarantaporo. At that time, Edessa was already well on its way to becoming a major industrial center in Macedonia. Four large textile factories with the
Hemp Factory being the biggest, employing the abundant
waterfalls as a source of energy. Prior to
World War I, in addition to Greeks, the region of Edessa was also populated by
Turks, Bulgarians,
Pomaks and
Vlachs, but during the
population exchange between Greece and Turkey most of the Turks and
Pomaks living in Edessa were transferred to
Turkey. Large numbers of Greek refugees from
Asia Minor were settled in the area in 1923. The population swelled from 9,441 to 13,115 in the 1920s. A large segment of the population specialized in
silk production, allowing Edessa to enjoy a high standard of living in the
interwar period (1922–1940). The town suffered during the last days of
German occupation of Greece in 1944. As a retaliation for the shooting of one soldier by resistance fighters, the Nazis set Edessa on fire. Half of the city, including the Cathedral and the First Primary School, was destroyed and thousands of people were left homeless. During the
Greek Civil War (1946-1949) Edessa was twice attacked in 1948 by the
Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), under the control of the
Communist Party of Greece. The
Slavic-Macedonian National Liberation Front (SNOF), later simply the National Liberation Front (NOF) was heavily established in the area, with eleven
Slav Macedonian partisan units operating in the mountains around the city. When the NOF merged with the
Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), many Slav Macedonians in the region enlisted as volunteers in the DSE. In early 1949, the military forces of the Greek Government conducted a series of successful military operations that destroyed all communist forces and after the end of war in August 1949, many communists and sympathizers, both ethnic Greeks and Slav Macedonians were expelled from Greece and fled to the countries of Eastern Europe. Since the 1970s Edessa's economy no longer relies on industry. At the beginning of the 21st century, it is a city based on services (mostly linked to its function as capital of the Pella regional unit) and
tourism due to the many ancient sights nearby, including ancient
Pella, the waterfalls and winter sports. ==The ancient site (
Loggos)==