PATRAS, or Patrae (Itai. Patrasso, Turkish Βαliα-badra), a fortified city of Greece, the principal port of the Morea, and the chief town of the nomos of Achaia and Elis, lies on the north coast of the Morea on the east side of the Gulf of Patras, which opens into the Gulf of Corinth by the Little Dardanelles, marked by forts Kastro Moreas and Kastro Rumelias. Since the War of Independence Patras has been one of the most prosperous cities in the kingdom; the quarters of the new town are well laid out; its old harbour being considered hardly safe in winter, a new harbour defended by a breakwater was commenced in 1880; new roads (to Kalavryta, for example) are opening up communication with the interior; a railway to connect the city with Corinth and Athens is in process of construction (1884); and the proposed cutting of the canal across the isthmus of Corinth would add new elements to its commerce. The population, which had sunk to 8000 at the time of the war, was 16,641 in 1870, and 24,993 in 1879. Patras is the seat of one of the four courts of appeal in the kingdom, and the residence of the archbishop of Patras and Elis. The custom-house is the most important in all Greece. Like the ancient city, the modern Patras previous to the revolution occupied the high ground of Scatovuni (a hill connected with Mount Voidia or Pan-achaicum, the dominant summit in this region), but since then it has spread out over the plain towards the sea. The two most interesting buildings are the castle, a mediaeval structure on the site of the ancient acropolis, and the cathedral of St Andrew, which is highly popular as the reputed burial-place of the saint, and has been rebuilt since the revolution. The commerce of Patras consists mainly in the export of currants, valonia, olive-oil, ...wine, and sheepskins (value in 1881, 19,369,270 francs, of which 18,104,046 francs were for currants alone), and the import of cotton and woollen goods, grain, flour, and colonial wares (value in 1881, 16,560,600 francs). Great Britain and Austria almost divide the foreign shipping trade, with a preponderance in favour of the former country, which takes more than half of the currants. August and September are the months when the port is at its busiest with British vessels. Famous even in antiquity for its flax manufactures (whence the number of females in the city was double that of the males), Patras at present contains several steam factories with about 4000 spindles producing coarse cotton twist from cotton grown in northern Grèece; and there are also sulphur-crushing mills, flour and macaroni mills, and an iron-foundry. Gas-works and water-works were constructed about 1874.
The foundation of Patras goes back to prehistoric times, the legendary account being that Eumelus, having been taught by Triptolemus how to grow grain in the rich soil of the Glaucus valley, established three townships, Aroe (i.c., ploughland), Antheia (the flowery), and Mesatis (the middle settlement), which were united by the common worship of Artemis Triclaria at her shrine on the river Meilichus. The Achaians having strengthened and enlarged Aroe called it Patrae as the exclusive residence of the ruling families. In 419 b.c. the town was, by the advice of Alcibiades, connected with its harbour by long walls in imitation of those at Athens. The whole armed force of Patrae was destroyed by Metellus after the defeat of the Achaians at Scarpheia, and many of the remaining inhabitants forsook the city; but after the battle of Actium Augustus restored the ancient name Aroe, introduced a military colony of veterans from the 10th and 12th legions (not, as is usually said, the 22d), and bestowed the rights of coloni on the inhabitants of Rhypae and Dyme, and all the Locri Ozolae except those of Amphissa. Colonia Augusta Aroe Patrensis became one of the most populous of all the towns of Greece; its colonial coinage extends from Augustus to Gordian III. That it was the scene of the martyrdom of St Andrew is purely apocryphal, but, like Corinth, it was an early and effective centre of Christianity; its archbishop is mentioned in the lists of the council of Sardica in 347. In 551 Patrae was laid in nιins by an earthquake. In 807 it was able without external assistance to deTeat tne Slavonians (Avars), though most of the credit of the victory was assigned to St Andrew, whose church was enriched by the imperial share of the spoils, and whose archbishop was made superior of the bishops of Methone, Lacedaemon, and Corone. Captured in 1205 by William of Champlitte and Villehardouin, the city became the capital and its archbishop the primate of the principality of Achaia. In 1587 De Heredia, grandmaster of the order of the Hospital at Rhodes, endeavoured to make himself master of Achaia, and took Patras by storm. At the close of the 15th century the city was governed by the archbishop in name of the pope; but in 1428 Constantine, son of John VI., managed to get possession of it for a time. Taken by a Spanish fleet under Andrea Doria in 1532, sacked by another Spanish fleet in 1595, and again sacked by the knights of Malta in 1603, Patras was at length in 1687 surrendered by the Turks to the Venetians, who made it the seat of one of the seven fiscal boards into which they divided the Morea. It was at Patras that the Greek revolution began iu 1821; but the Turks, confined to the citadel, held out till 1828, when the French troops took possession of the Morea.
See C. I. L., vol. iii. 1; Bursian, Geogr. von Griechenland and Finlay’s Hist, of Greece.
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