SamothracePart of visitors.gr

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Samothrace

Samothrace is a mountainous island in the northeastern Aegean, dominated by Mount Fengari, the highest peak in the Aegean Sea. It is best known for the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, an ancient religious site where the statue now known as the Winged Victory of Samothrace was discovered.

History

Inhabited since prehistory by Thracian tribes, the island was colonized by Greek settlers from Samos in the 8th century BCE, giving it the name Samothrace ("Thracian Samos"). Its Sanctuary of the Great Gods, excavated since 1863, hosted the Samothracian Mysteries -- secret initiation rites open to slaves and free citizens alike that drew pilgrims from across the ancient Greek world, including Philip II of Macedon. The Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of antiquity's most celebrated sculptures, was unearthed at the sanctuary in 1863 by French vice-consul Charles Champoiseau and is now in the Louvre. The island passed through Persian, Athenian, Macedonian, Byzantine, and Ottoman rule before joining the modern Greek state in 1912 after the First Balkan War, and today forms its own municipality within the Evros regional unit of Thrace.

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