Arachova is a mountainous town in the Regional Unit of Viotia, built on the southern slopes of Mount Parnassos at an altitude of 950 meters. It was the seat of the homonymous municipality until the end of 2010 while with the implementation of the Kallikratis program it joined the new Municipality of Distomo-Arachova-Antikyra, of which it is a Municipal Unit. Its population according to the 2011 census is 2,657 inhabitants.
It is a popular winter resort, thanks to the existence of a ski resort and its short distance from Athens (153 km).
Arachova The prevailing view of the origin of its name is that it comes from the South Slavic word Orechova which means walnut field. But there are two more versions of the origin of its name. According to the first, the area was known during the Revolution as “Rachova”, a word of Greek origin, which comes from the combination “rachis” and “ovas”, and which was used to denote the residential association of residents living in smaller formations. However, according to the Arachovite author of the poem “My grandfather and I in Arachova” (published by “A. Pitsilos”, Athens, 1998, p. 13) George T. Syros, this name probably comes from the old village of Rachovo, at Grevena , from which came inhabitants persecuted by the Turks during the Turkish occupation. The other version wants the word to come from the Greek “rachis” and the Slavic “ova” (place), so “Arachova” (Arachova) = “backyard”.
Arachova is built on a slope of Mount Parnassos, which ends in a ravine, at the bottom of which flows the river Pleistos. The average altitude of the settlement is 950 meters. The settlement is located on the main road that connects from antiquity Delphi and Thebes and the plain of Amfissa with Viotia. Its location on an important passage helped Arachova to develop to a greater extent than its neighbors. The settlement is 12 km from Delphi, located further west and 153 km from Athens.
In 1833, the current Church of Agios Georgios was built, which had existed since 1676 in a different form, as shown by a relief plaque on the Holy Step. In 1870 a catastrophic earthquake claimed the lives of several Arachovites and many houses and public buildings such as the famous Clock.
After the Second World War, the Community of Arachova became a municipality with the name of the Municipality of Arachova, in 1948. In 1959, the High School of Arachova was founded, while a few years later the Unified Lyceum of Arachova was created. In 1957 the Athletic Association of Arachova “Parnassos” was founded and in 1985 the Educational, Cultural & Recreational Association of Arachova “O Georgios Karaiskakis”. In 1870 the abbot of the Holy Monastery of Saint Luke, Nektarios Kamvasinos, undertook at his own expense the reconstruction of the damaged Clock, giving it its current form.
Arachova was a small village in the mid-1970s, a year before the construction of the Parnassos Ski Center was completed, and was favored by its proximity to Delphi. The groups of visitors of the archeological site of Delphi led to the tourist development of the area which became bigger after the creation of the ski centers and the development of winter tourism in Greece.
