EDESSA

Modern Greek dhessa, chief city, noms (department) of Plla, Macedonia, Greece, on a steep bluff above the valley of the Loudhis Potams (river). A swift, fragmented stream flowing through the town was known as the Skirtos (leaper) in ancient times and since the Middle Ages as the Vdhas (Slavic voda, water) and now as the Edhessaos Potams. Its waterfalls have been threatened by the building of a hydroelectric power station at Agra, 2 mi (3 km) east of the town. A prominent trading and agricultural centre, it also manufactures carpets and textiles and is the seat of the metropolitan bishop of Edessa and Pella (Plla). The assumption that Edessa was the location of Aigai, the first capital of ancient Macedonia, was seriously challenged by the discovery in 1977 of royal tombs of Macedonian leaders at Verghina, southeast of Vroia, including one identified as that of Philip II. In Roman times Edessa was a stop on the Via Egnatia connecting the Adriatic Sea with the Aegean Sea, and a Roman or Byzantine bridge span of that highway survives in the town. Fought over by the Bulgarians, Byzantines, and Serbs, Edessa was taken by the Turks in the 15th century. In 1912 it passed to Greece. Pop. (1981) 16,054.