Gravia

Gravia lies between Mount Giona and Parnassus, at the western end of the valley of the Boeotian Cephissus. A medieval castle nearby watched the pass through the mountains. In 1275 John Doukas of Thessaly gave it to the Duchy of Athens as part of his daughter Helena's dowry. Centuries later, in May 1821, the Greek leader Odysseas Androutsos and his men defended an inn at Gravia against the Ottoman forces of Omer Vryonis, in one of the early battles of the War of Independence.