Rising of the Phoenix – the incredible story of the Kalamata tree

The next tale includes a heavy-handed empire, an ambitious and vicious army general, people seeking freedom, and one tree that symbols the braveness and pride of the Greek people

Greece, a religious Christian orthodox country, never accepted the Ottoman occupation. From the fall of Constantinople in 1453, till the mid-16th century, when the Peloponnese peninsula fell, the Greeks never stopped rebelling against the Ottoman regime.
Finally, at the beginning of the 19th century, the high gate (Sublime Porte) sent General Ibrahim Pasha to end, once and for all, the constant rebellions in Greece.

Ibrahim lands on the southern shores of the Peloponnese with a mighty fleet and has an effective yet horrible plan to break the rebellion: nothing stays alive behind him. He burns villages and towns and slaughters the inhabitants, burns down forests and fields, and poisons all water sources. In a short time, the Peloponnese was emptied with population and destroyed.
It says that not even crickets were heard in the destruction he left behind.

The stories of the horrors shocked the West, and a coalition was assembled.
He was finally defeated in the battle of Navarino, on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula. His defeat was essential to the efforts for the independence of Greece.

And what about the Kalamata tree? In the city of Kalamata, the capital of the Kalamata region, in the south of the peninsula, a lone olive tree was miraculously saved from the great fire that destroyed the city.

The tree was of a variety we call (mistakenly) Kalamata, though in Greece it is called Kalamon, meaning ‘of Kalamata’, or ‘from Kalamata’.
It says that the variety’s original name was different, but no one was left alive to tell its real name.

‘The mother tree of Kalamon’ – the origin of all the Kalamta trees we know today.
The historical tree is located and prosper in Kalamata city, a symbol of the strong standing of the Greek people, fighting for independence