Lefktra


Lefktra is a village in the regional unit Boeotia, Greece, part of the municipality of Thebes. Before 1915, its name was Παραπούγγια - Parapoungia. Lefktra is a traditional Greek village of Central Greece, located in the foothill of Kithairon. The population of Lefktra is 1,091 people. Thebes is sixteen kilometers away and Athens 70 km away, from the old national road. There are bus lines from Thebes to Lefktra and vice versa daily, and from Athens to Lefktra at the weekends. Residents' main occupations are agriculture and stockbreeding. Livadostra and Koromili beaches are ten minutes away by car.
Between 1912 and 1997 Lefktra was an independent community. In 1997, at the Kapodistrias reform, it was merged into the municipality Plataies, along with the communities Melissochori, Loutoufi and Kaparelli. In 2010, at the Kallikratis reform, Plataies was merged into the municipality of Thebes.
Lefktra is named after the ancient village of Leuctra in ancient Boeotia, seven miles southwest of Thebes. Near anicnet Leuctra, in 371 BC, was fought the Battle of Leuctra in which the Thebans, under Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans. The Spartan hegemony was fallen after that battle, and the Thebans became a new power within the Hellenic world, until the rise of Macedon.