Orfeas
Orfeas, named after the mythical musician
Orpheus, is one of the largest municipalities and the least populated municipality in the prefecture of
Evros,
Greece. The seat of the municipality is in
Lavara. Much of the land is mountainous and forested to the west hovering the central and the western part of the prefecture extending up to the
Rhodope prefecture. It is linked with
GR-51 (Alexandroupoli - Orestiada - Edirne in Turkey and Svilengrad in Bulgaria). The town sits on a plain. It is located SE of
Svilengrad, S of
Edirne, Turkey and
Orestiada, and 13 km N of
Soufli and 78 km N of
Alexandroupoli.
*
Lavara*
Amorio*
Kyriaki*
Mandra*
Mavroklisiou**
Korymvos*
Mikro Dereio*
Protoklisiou**
Agriani*
Didymoteicho, NE
*
Kissari, east
*
Mandra, west
| Year | Population | Change | Municipal population |
|---|
| 1981 | 2,117 | - | - |
| 1991 | 2,173 | 54/26.4% | 4,392 |
| 2001 | 1,580 | - | 6,146 |
Forests dominate the river banks and parts of the plain. Much of the area are used for farming. The main production are cattle, fruits and vegetables and some flowers. The mountains dominate further west.
The town were rare affected by the Evros river flooding of
February 17 to 22, 2005. Flood warnings were reported that time. It devastated much of the town on Wednesday
March 2, 2005 and continued for several days. On Friday March 4, flood waters plummeted slowly. It amounted up to 5 m or 5,000 mm of rainfall causing the rover to overflow its banks. It flooded buildings, properties and stores. It also left people stranded in their homes and buildings. 50 houses were damaged. It was the worst flooding in nearly 50 years. The rail south of Lavara and near the station were also flooded and was closed that time.
Lavara has a school, a lyceum, a gymnasium, churches, banks, a police station, a water tower, a post office, a library, and a square (
plateia).
*http://thesaurus.duth.gr/english/moredata.asp?Perioxh_ID=42&Subj=255
*
Evros floods*
Critical hours in Lavara during the floods -
pathfinder.gr*http://www.imerisia.gr/pages/01002000001. asp?
*http://orfeas.evros.gr/lavara.htm (in Greek)
Ta lavara tis AEKTa lavara tis PAOK*
Lavaro
