This particular area of Vermio, where Naoussa is found today and where Herodotus places the famous "Gardens of Midas", was inhabited from most ancient times by the Vriges, who migrated to Europe before the Trojan War. According to Thucydides and Strabo, these Vriges were persecuted by Caranus, founder of the Macedonian State, while subsequently other Macedonian tribes came and intermixed with the Vrigo - Pelasgian tribes which were left and thus comprised the population of historical times.
Extended ruins in the area between today's Naoussa and the neighbouring villages of the plain reinforce the version that contemporary Naoussa has evolved at the site of a significant city of antiquity, which was found between Veroia and Edessa. The name of this city, according to archaeologists' most recent views, was Mieza. According to local myth, the three children of the mythical king of the area, Veretos, passed their names on as follows: the daughters to the two important cities of Emathia, Veroia and Mieza, while the son, Olganus, metamorphosed into a river god and gave his name to the river known today as the Arapitsa. A bust of Olganus, which was discovered in the Copanos area and dates back to the 2nd century A.D., is now preserved at the Museum of Veroia.
The archaeological site of Mieza - better known by the name of Lefkadia - which today is included for the most part within the limits of the Municipality of Anthemia, had already been located in the 19th century by the French traveler Delacoulonche and the Dane architect K. F. Kinch, but was subject to systematic research only after 1950, with the work of curator of antiquities at that time, Photis Petsas. The existence of settlements from the late Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Classical, and also the Hellenistic Era has been verified, the Hellenistic being the most significant from the standpoint of surviving monuments (late 4th c. -168 B. C. ). Among the many scattered archaeological findings of the area, the unique great Macedonian tombs (of Judgment, Lyson and Kallikles, Anthemia, Kinch et. al.) and the School of Aristotle in the Nymphaion at Mieza are considered most significant. Rather recently the ancient theatre of the city has come to light and the city's Agora is being excavated.
The city is situated in ancient Emathia west of the ancient Macedonian town of Mieza and the site of ancient School of Aristotle. The area, according to Herodotus, was where the Gardens of King Midas were situated. Later, in the current position of the city, the Romans established the colony of Nova Augusta. The name changed through the centuries to Niagusta, Niaousta and Niaousa, until it became today's Naousa.
The area belonged to the monastic property which the Ottoman conqueror of Macedonia, General Ghazi Evrenos, established, and his descendents maintained at Giannitsa. The pure Greek population which resettled enjoyed from the start certain particularly significant privileges, thanks to the intervention of valide sultana Mara Brankovich. These privileges allowed population to gather rapidly and the development of handcrafts (gunsmiths, goldsmiths, textiles, etc.). In parallel, they created circumstances conducive to the flourishing of a pure Greek community, self-governed and with its own guard. Thus, in combination with its economic development, we already have from the 17th century a small urban centre with a thousand homes, vineyards, gardens, a market and bazaar, which exerted significant economic influence in the area of Central Macedonia, and even further yet.
The 18th century finds Naoussa having achieved a fairly high level of development. Known mainly for its exceptional wine, significant educational and cultural activities develop in parallel to productive and commercial ones. Population almost doubles compared to the previous century. The area's development, however, is halted to a certain degree in 1804, by the subjection of Naoussa to Ali Pasha of loannina, who held it under his suzerainty until 1812. Many villages, mainly in the mountains surrounding Naoussa, still remained under his suzerainty even after 1812.
Withstanding its prosperity, in February of 1822 Naoussa and the surrounding area finds itself at the focal centre of a large-scale revolt within the context of the Greek Revolution, which had already broken out in other areas of the Ottoman Empire. After a series of military operations by Naoussa under the leadership of Zafirakis Theodosiou and Tasos Karatasios which had as their target the creation of a free revolutionary order in the area, the city itself is besieged by the forces of Commander of Thessaloniki Ebu Lubut and finally falls in the face of the outnumbering forces of the enemy on April 22 1822, low Sunday.
Plundering, massacres and the population's enslavement, but also indescribable scenes of self-sacrifice and heroism followed the fall of the city. Many women prefer death, falling with their children into the foamy waters of the Arapitsa River waterfall at Stoubani, rather than falling into the hands of the Turks. The city was destroyed and its privileges withdrawn.
The holocaust of the town marks the end of an important part of the history of Naoussa. But it also comprises, with the resettlement of the city's surviving population as well as another seventy Turkish families, the beginning of a new period which finally led to the formulation of the town's contemporary profile. The 19th century largely determined the further development of Naoussa, and mainly of its economic sector (commerce, large industry) naturally affecting all other facets of town life (social, educational, etc.)
In the early 20th century Naoussa was an important centre for the Macedonian struggle against Bulgarian aggressiveness (1904-1908). Liberated from Ottoman domination by military operations of the Balkan Wars on October 17th, 1912, the town receives, after the Treaty of Lorraine in 1923, a large number of Black Sea (Pontic) and Asia Minor refugees, who are incorporated into the town's population and contribute to its further development.
Now, as an integral part of the Greek State, Naoussa continues its brilliant economic development with the establishment of yet more industrial facilities, the introduction of systematic arboriculture, the systemization of foreign trade and the improvement, in general, of the living conditions of its residents.
During the German Occupation, the people of Naoussa actively participate in the National Resistance. In May of 1944, at Prodromos Monastery freedom fighters resisted German forces. In the unequal and cruel battle which ensued, almost all were killed -their names are inscribed at the marble monument which has since been erected at the monastery. In January of 1949, a large section of the town is destroyed in the Civil War which followed the termination of World War II.
ARCHITECTURE
Up to the early 20th century, the greatest part of the configured urban area is limited to the level area beyond the northern riverbank. The town is divided by wider or narrower streets with serpentine windings, local broadenings and dead-ends, into large, rather closed, irregular and unequal residential clusters. Parish temples and the school buildings found near them usually make up local centres. Districts are crossed by small streams which provide motion to mills, sawmills, hydraulic presses, etc. and are used to water gardens, simultaneously constituting a rather effective and healthy sewage network. The establishment and operation of large industrial installations alongside the river right next to the town, initially (late 19th c), on the southern riverbank, and later (between World War I and WWII), on the northern riverbank also, contributed to the town's gradual expansion in other directions as well, both on the other side of the river as well as towards the western grades.
Today's urban plan is, in general, a result of the implementation of the 1928 street- plan, which was revised in 1950. The old city web was modified and decomposed, with the creation of new, straight axes which cut across the old, traditional neighbourhoods.
Source: www.naoussa.gr