Zetoúnion

Zetounion, the medieval name of ancient Lamia, stands near the Spercheios River and the routes through Thermopylae. Its fortified hill guarded the narrow passage between Thessaly and southern Greece. After Alexander the Great's death, the Macedonian regent Antipater took refuge behind its substantial city walls during the Lamian War. Centuries later the Franks, Catalans and Byzantines fought for the same stronghold.

The Catalan Company held Zetounion until 1391, when it passed to the Acciaioli dukes of Athens. Sultan Bayezid I destroyed its fortress in 1394. Byzantine forces later recovered the town, but the Ottomans conquered it again in the 1420s. Under their rule it was known as İzdin, and remained an Ottoman town until it joined the newly independent Greek kingdom in 1832.