The municipality of Sotiritsa includes the new settlement of coastal Sotiritsa and Old Sotiritsa.
The village is built on the slopes of Kissavos. The old name of the village was Kapista. A small mid-byzantine temple dedicated to Christ the Savior (“Sotiras”) to the north on a plateau of Ossa, and this is where the village is claimed to get its name Sotiritsa. However, various findings in the area show that in the same location there must have existed a byzantine monastery. Paved roads, chapels, old Christian findings and the traditional atmosphere preserved in the village compose the image of a place that wants to maintain its color, the fact that can be proved by the many restored houses.
The first residents of the village were 7 families who settled there down 200 years ago and became oak-loggers (data from a French traveler’s report). Then, around 1880, a lumberjack association was founded in Kapista (data from a file of the Ministry of Agriculture). The main income of the residents (around 500 in 1933) was from stockraising, cultivation of vineyards, olive trees and the silkworm rearing.
The area of Sotiritsa was a manor (tsifliki) that was expropriated in 1931 and was given to the landless residents’ club after long-lasting bloody battles between the residents and first the Pasha, and laterwith the landkeeper (alexnder Zoulias).
During the 1970’s the village was slowly abandoned and the residents emigrated. Most of them went down to the coast where they worked on their land and the coastal settlement of Sotiritsa was created. Today the residents cultivate primarily olives, but also cherry and chestnut trees. In recent years, small family tourist firms have developed there. The area is well known for its first-class olive oil.
We are talking about a green area spreading from the slopes of southwestern Kissavos to the seaside. The 7-kilometer-long beach is well-known for its clear waters because it is a part of the Aegean Sea, but also for the fine sand and small pebbles.
Sotiritsa is located 50 km away from Larissa and is wedged between Agiocampos and Velika.