Livadeia

Livadeia grew around the Krya springs, where cold water pours out of the rock at the mouth of the Erkyna gorge and runs through the town under plane trees; cafes sit on platforms directly over the water, which is the town's social centre in summer. In antiquity this was the sanctuary of the oracle of Trophonios, one of the strangest in Greece: enquirers underwent days of purification, drank from the springs of Memory and Forgetfulness, and were then lowered feet first into a narrow pit to receive the oracle in the dark, emerging so shaken that a special chair was kept to record what they said. Rock-cut niches along the gorge survive from the sanctuary. Above stands the castle, built by the Catalan Company in the fourteenth century, with towers looking over the plain.

History

Ancient Lebadeia stood near the western frontier of Boeotia, between Mount Helicon and Chaeroneia, at the foot of a steep height; it was at first an insignificant place, but it rose to importance through the celebrated oracle of Trophonius, consulted by both Croesus and Mardonius and still active in Plutarch's time, when the other oracles of Boeotia had fallen silent (Wikipedia, Livadeia).

The main sights

• The Krya springs - cold water emerging under plane trees in the gorge mouth.
• The gorge niches - rock-cut shrines from the sanctuary of Trophonios.
• The Catalan castle - fourteenth-century walls and towers above the town.
• The waterside cafes - platforms built over the running stream.

When to go

Spring and early summer for full springs and shade; the water keeps the gorge cool even in August. The castle is best in late afternoon light.

Good to know

The oracle site is fragmentary, essentially niches and cuttings, and needs imagination. The town itself is workaday outside the springs area. The castle is a short but steep climb with no facilities.

Nearby

Orchomenos lies northeast; Delphi and Arachova are an hour west along the main road.

Key facts