Amfissa

Most people come to Amfissa on the way to Delphi and stop for coffee. That is a mistake, because the town underneath the castle is one of the few in Greece where the classical past is not somewhere else — it is under your feet.

The castle of Oria, on the acropolis 290 metres above the town, was the first fortress in Greece to fall in the War of Independence, on 10 April 1821, and it fell hard: about six hundred of the Ottoman garrison were killed. It is a ruin now, and a very atmospheric one, with polygonal masonry and the whole Delphic valley laid out below.

The Archaeological Museum of Amfissa is in the building where the First National Assembly of Eastern Continental Greece met in 1821, which is the kind of building Greece has very few of. Its particular treasure is a group of around eight hundred female figurine heads from the sixth century BC, catalogued by hairstyle — an entire vanished fashion industry in terracotta.

And then there is the reason Amfissa is famous, which is not Delphi at all. In 339 BC Philip II of Macedon seized the city, garrisoned it and plundered the sanctuary, because the citizens had cultivated the sacred grove of Crisa, which was holy to Apollo. The grove had already caused one sacred war; this was the pretext for another. It became the excuse for the Fourth Sacred War and the whole Greek world went to war over a vineyard. The grove is still there, and the Konservolia olives grown among the trees carry a protected designation of origin.

Amfissa, ancient Amphissa, was described by Pausanias as 'the largest and most renowned city of Locris', a hundred and twenty stades from Delphi. Its inhabitants were originally of Locrian race, though they claimed to be Aetolian and were thought to be ashamed of being called Ozolian Locrians — a small detail that says a lot about how the Greeks themselves ranked their neighbours.

The grove of Crisa, sacred to Apollo, brought the city into a long quarrel with the Delphic Amphictyony, and the cultivation of it by the Amphissians caused the Third Sacred War. Philip II of Macedon, who had already taken Thermopylae, marched in and destroyed the town; the Fourth Sacred War followed and ended in Philip's victory at Chaeronea two years later. The war was what sealed Macedonian ascendancy over Greece.

The settlement survived as a smaller town and became the seat of the regional unit of Phocis, which it has been since the Kallikratis reform took effect in 2011 — a distinction it was granted on the initiative of a local MP in 1899, and one that was never in doubt even when Delphi carried more weight.

There is one administrative wrinkle worth knowing. Amfissa is not merely near Delphi; it is the seat of the Municipality of Delphi, and since 2011 the seat of the Phocis regional unit. The ancient site and the modern administrative capital are the same municipality.

The name is recorded by Stephanus of Byzantium in the sixth century AD. His Ethnica is not a book of stories but a dictionary of Greek place-names, and for this one it says: "It was called Amfissa because it is encircled by the mountains lying around it". (Ethnica, s.v. Ἄμφισσα).

That is the whole of what an ancient source has to say about how the place got its name. It is a shorter answer than the guidebooks give, and it is the only one with a source behind it.

Amfissa is inland, though it has its own port thirteen kilometres away at Itea on the Gulf of Corinth, which is a genuinely useful fact: the nearest coast to this town is served by its own harbour.

The overwhelming reason to be here is Delphi, about twenty kilometres by road — twenty minutes, not the ten that gets claimed. That is close enough to do properly and then come back, and Amfissa makes a better base than the villages up the mountain because it is the seat of the regional unit, so it has the museum, the hospital and the shops.

Eastwards the road climbs into the Delphic landscape and then to Arachova, about thirty-two kilometres, which is the Parnassus ski town and the closest thing to a resort in the region. West of Amfissa the mountain rises immediately to Giona and Elatos.

Itea, at about thirteen kilometres, is worth a stop in its own right — it was the port of ancient Delphi, so the olive oil that went into the Athenian trade left from here — and it is a small, working Gulf town rather than a resort. Galaxidi, across the water on the Corinthian side, is a nineteenth-century seafaring town with a nautical museum.

One caution for the traveller who assumes otherwise: Delphi is inside the same municipality as Amfissa, which is seated at Amfissa. The ancient site and the modern regional capital are administratively one.

This is a small inland town on the edge of the Delphic plain, and the cooking follows the olives and the vineyards.

The thing to eat is what comes out of the grove: Konservolia olives under protected designation of origin, the local olive oil, and the wines of the Delphic valley, which are a serious proposition rather than a footnote. There is local cheese, and the baked and grilled dishes that Greek mountain towns do well.

Amfissa also has a specific tradition worth knowing about: the bell-making workshops of Charmaina, below the castle, an old craft that is still practised here rather than only remembered. It is the sort of thing that makes a town worth a look for its own sake.

Eat in the town rather than at the roadside tavernas on the Delphi road, which are catering to a different day-trip entirely.

April to June is the best time for Amfissa: the olives are in flower, the plain is green and Delphi is comfortable before the summer heat. October and November are excellent, with the harvest and the olive groves at their best. September is the sweet spot for combining the town with Delphi. July and August are hot and Delphi is crowded, though the town itself stays quiet. Winter is mild here, with the plain and the Parnassus above it — which is snow-covered if you want skiing at Arachova and green at the bottom.

Amfissa lies about 20 km off the main north-south road but is well served by local buses from Amphikleia. By car it is an easy run from Livadeia, Lamia or the turn-off for Delphi.

It makes an excellent base for Delphi precisely because it is quieter than the archaeological site and has the regional services. Go up to the castle in the late afternoon; it is exposed and there is no shade until you are among the ruins. The museum is small and worth an unhurried hour. And if you are visiting Delphi, check the current access arrangements before you go — the archaeological site and the museum there are still periodically closed for work, and the site is a long walk uphill from the village.