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The Lambino Mystery – A Lost Town in Central Greece

by Peter Doorn

 

The first time I encountered the town called Lambino, was in the transcriptions of Ottoman tax registers from the 15th and 16th century by the Dutch art historian and osmanologist Machiel Kiel. There were even two Lambinos or Lambinas, it appeared.

 

One was substantially bigger than the other, and was therefore called Megali Lambina (megali means large in Greek). It was a settlement in the Turkish district (nahiye) of Lidoriki (Olunduruk in Turkish) with the status of village (karye) in the Ottoman tax registers of 1506, 1521, 1540 and 1570. In the earlier register of 1466, the first one that we know of, it does not occur. The Lidoriki district had become Turkish land after the conquest of Trikala at the end of the 14th century.

 

In 1499 a lot changed in the area, as that was the year that the main town on the Gulf of Corinth, called Navpaktos (or Lepanto – actually the Gulf was called after Lepanto at that time) was conquered by Sultan Bayezid II. It may well be, that before that year, Megali Lambina belonged to the area of Navpaktos, which was then in the possession of the Venetians. 

 

From the tax registers, we know quite a lot about the demography and economy of the Megali Lambino. In 1506 it consisted of 92 households, which quickly grew to 210 households in 1521. Since then, the population stagnated and decreased to 182 families in 1540 and to 117 in 1570. The next register that we know on the region is from more than a century later (1688). In that year there is place that is difficult to read, according to Kiel it could be Libases/Letases or Lambino, but we are not even sure that this is the same place as Megali Lambino, because no adjective for great or large is mentioned. This place had 53 families in 1688.

 

We do not know the family size, but it is often assumed that an average of about 5 persons is an educated guess. In the Turkish registers, bachelors were usually counted separately, and also widows (with their family) were counted separately. It is noteworthy, that in 1506 and 1521 no bachelors were counted in Megali Lambino, which may be an indication for the recruitment of young men as Janissaries by the army of Bayezid after 1499. But the settlement size must have fluctuated between 250 (in 1688) and over 1000 (in 1520). In the second quarter of the 16th century, Megali Lambino was even larger than the capital of the district Lidoriki itself.  

The total tax proceeds of Megali Lambino increased much more than the population, and between 1506 and 1540 it paid more taxes than Lidoriki. Although the taxation figures for individual products vary a lot and cannot be taken as reliable economic indicators, it is clear that wheat, barley, sheep and wine were important products. Beehives and swine were also available in considerable numbers, and the number of water mills registered was between 4 and 7. Nowhere else in the district, except for the capital, there were so many mills.

 

Although classified as a village, we can conclude that for this rural area, Megali Lambino was of considerable size, and could perhaps be labelled as a small town.

 

The second Lambino (or Lanbino/Lambano) appears in the neighboring district of Vitrinitsa, close to the coast, bordering on the South and East on the Lidoriki district. The capital of the nahiye with the same name is identified as present-day Tolofon. The number of families between 1466 and 1570 increased from 17 to 57. The total taxation figure is only known for 1466 (only 934 akçe, a silver Turkish coin of that period). The figures for individual products such as grains and are modest, only the number of 4000 sheep stands out in 1570. Interestingly, prinokokki (oak galls, used as a red dye) is mentioned as a specialty product, but there were no mills registered. In sum, this Lambino will have been a rather small place, with no substantial stream, but with considerable oak forest or scrubs of Quercus coccifera.

 

The register on Megali Lambino of 1570 is accompanied by a long note stating that this village was situated in a dangerous area infested with bandits, who had killed several people. Therefore the village population had started to disperse and the village dwindled. It was judged necessary to grant the village the status of derbend, to exempt it from paying extraordinary taxes and corvées, and from the recruitment of boys for janissaries. They had to pay half the normal tithes on wheat and barley. In this way it was attempted to reassemble the inhabitants and to revive the village. The status was already granted in the previous register (c. 1550) and was renewed.

 

In 1540 and 1570, moreover, there are additional notes on the taxation of two monasteries, counted with Megali Lambino. A lump sum of 200 akçe per year was included in the proceeds of the village for the market‑dues of the monastery of Varnakova in 1540. In 1570 this amount had doubled. Further, the monastery of Agios Ioannis paid 50 akçe of taxes in 1540 and in 1570 the monks had to pay 150 akçe. In addition to the market dues, the Varnakova monastery paid the revenues of a ciftlik, consisting of a piece of land, five gardens, three mills, one felt press, and olive trees, situated in the villages of Megali Lambino and Vlakhokatounon (present-day Trikorfon). The ciftlik was in usufruct by the monks and the lump sum for the tithes and taxes amounted to 3700 akçe. The ciftlik of the monastery of Agios Ioannis consisted of two cifts(pieces of land).

 

Although the identification of Megali Lambino is not certain, the location of both monasteries offers an important clue. The 12th century monastery of Agios Ioannis, except for the katholikon nowadays in ruins, was situated about 2 km north of the present‑day village of Evpalion. The village was called Soule(s) in late Ottoman time until 1907. The 11th century monastery of Varnakova (repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt; recent fires in 2017 and June 2020) lies some 7 km to the north‑east of this village. Evpalion became an important regional centre in the 19th and 20th century, replacing two secluded settlements known as Ano and Kato Karya (higher and lower village), about 2 km west of the Varnakova monastery and 6 km north of Evpalion. 3 km east of Evpalion an early Christian basilica dating to the 4th century was found. The area was relatively flat, fertile and water-rich, and therefore a likely settlement area for a substantial small town such as Megali Lambino, which can therefore possibly be identified as a predecessor of Evpalion, although its exact site is not yet known.

 

Some further evidence for this tentative identification is offered by maps dating from the 16th and 17thcenturies, showing the village of Lambino (also spelt as Lubina or Lambina) near the mouth of the Mornos river to the east of Navpaktos. The village is moreover mentioned by Sathas as a place belonging to Navpaktos at the end of the 15th century.[1]

The identification of Megali Lambino is further complicated by the existence of villages with the same or similar names in the districts of Vitrinitsa (Lambino, also not) and Kravari, the mountainous region to the north of Navpaktos (Megali Lombotina, present‑day Ano Khora).

 

The occurrence of piracy in the area is worthy of note. The area around Lepanto was reputedly a pirates’ nest, from which it got its nickname ‘Little Algiers’ in the 17th century.[2] From the Ottoman register we know that pirates made the coastal region unsafe already in the mid 16th century.

 

[1] See Sathas 1869, 29.

[2] See Miller 1921, 380.