Built in an advantageous position on the top of a hill with a view to all points of the horizon, near the French River and its offshoots, the ancient Palatiano settlement, located near today’s Kilkis in northern Greece, was founded in the 10th century BC, and its flourishing periods date back to Hellenistic (4th-2nd century BC) era and Roman times (1st-3rd century AD). The remains of the late Roman phase of the city are still visible today and visitors can walk along the original cobbled ancient streets and paths.

The long history of the ancient city and the role it played for many years in the wider region is what one can discover in the short film “Palatiano. A Roman City on the Kroussia Mountains of Kilkis,” made by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kilkis and funded by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

The city developed during the Classical period and acquired the characteristics of an urban centre from the 4th century to the middle of the 1st century BC. Its heyday, however, is documented during the Roman period, from the 1st century to the 3rd century AD, when it was destroyed by an unknown cause.

One of the most important monuments, which testifies to the wealth of the city, is the honorary Heroon, which dates back to the end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd century AD. In it, four of the five statues of the important family of Patraos and Ammias have been preserved in very good condition. 

The names of their three sons – Alexander, Medes and Zoolos – are also preserved. The archaeological site of Palatianos may – according to scholars – be identified with the ancient city of Ioron, which remains to be verified by future excavations and the discovery of an inscription.

The Ephorate of Antiquities of Kilkis is planning the immediate creation of an Information Center at the site using digital technology, in the framework of the project “Europos-Palatiano-Stovoi: Cultural Values of the Past and Future,” which is part of the cross-border INTERREG 2014-2020 program.

The general coordination and overall curation of the film was organized by the head of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kilkis, Dr Georgia Stratouli, the scientific curation was carried out by the archaeologists Dr Nektarios Poulakakis and Dr Maria Farmaki, while our “guide” is the archaeologist Dr Theodoros Papakostas.

It is very likely, according to Stratouli, that the film will participate in an international competition, as the previous film produced by the Ephorate of Antiquities Kilkis, “The City of Morrelia” won first prize in the audience awards in 2021, among 32 films from around the world, in the international competition “Museums in Short.” In the same competition in 2020, the second prize in the category of the public vote was won by the Ephorate of Antiquities Kilkis’ first film, “Seleucus I Nicator.”

[AMNA]