Metaxata

Metaxata Μεταξάτα
Location
Metaxata
Coordinates	38°7′N 20°32′E
Government
Country:	Greece
Region:	Ionian Islands
Regional unit:	Kefalonia
Municipality:	Kefalonia
Municipal unit:	Leivathos
Population statistics (as of 2001)
Village
- Population:	493
Other
Time zone:	EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Auto:	KE

Metaxata (Greek: Μεταξάτα) is a village in the southern part of the island of Kefalonia. It has a population of 493. It is part of the municipal unit of Leivathos.

Subdivision

The municipal district has one settlement, the other subdivisions even though they are not listed since they have no offices are:

• Kaligata
• Kourkoumelata

Nearest places

The nearest places are ordered clockwise

• Travliata, northeast
• Keramies, east
• Kourkoumelata, south
• Svoronata, west-southwest
• Lakithra, west

Geography

The area around Metaxata is surrounded by farmlands that are mainly pastures, fruits, vegetables, groves as well as by some forrests. The hills dominate the west and the east. Metaxata forms a junction with two roads, one linking west to Lakithra and Argostoli, the island capital and east to Keramies and the southeastern villages of Livathos and another linking north to Travliatata and the Argostoli-Poros Road and another way to Kourkoumelata and the airport.

Information

Metaxata was founded by the Byzantine Marcantonio Metaxa who settled in an area then known as Frantzata (Φρατζάτα) after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The village is the home town of the revolutionists Andreas and Konstantinos Metaxas who had the power of Kefalonia and participated in the Greek War of Independence in the Peloponnese in the 1820s. In 1823, Lord Byron lived in Metaxata for four months and wrote some poems about the area and its beauties. Metaxata did not join Greece, like the rest of the Ionian Islands, until the 1860s.

Metaxata was severely struck by an earthquake (see 1953 Ionian earthquake) that occurred in August 1953 and destroyed every stone-built house in the village. It took until the late-1950s to rebuild them but most of them still possess the traditional character of the old cephalonian houses. Metaxata was never the same later as the population emigrated to big cities, such as Athens and other parts of the world. Communications and running water were added to its houses and in the 1970s, the village became linked with asphalt. Today in the central square, there is a statue in remembrance of Lord Byron and right next to it, the traveller can see the house where the great poet lived.

Population

Year	Population
1981	367
1991	357
2001	493

External links

• Metaxata on GTP Travel Pages (in English and Greek)

See also

• List of settlements in the Kefalonia prefecture