Rizia

The village of Rizia is located about 20 kilometers north of Orestiada beside the Ardas River, within a short distance from the space of the Ardas Festival in Kastanies of Evros. The village is big, with about 1,200 inhabitants, most of whom are farmers.

Near the village, there is the beach of the Ardas River. There are many places for fun and relaxation where guests and villagers enjoy the natural beauty and freshness. There is also a concrete construction (cassis in the local dialect) that connects Rizia with Kanadas and other villages located on the opposite bank.

On the beach of the Ardas River in Rizia is held every year in early August, the corn festival.

For the present name of the village, there are five versions: from the cultivation of rice, to the “roots” (rizes in Greek) that the village had to grow to root at this place, from the rhizomes of Ardas to the Italian landowners with this surname, any version does not outweigh the other and everyone…chooses and takes!

Around Rizia have been discovered remains of a settlement of the Iron Age and various findings that reach the times of Septimius Severus (193-211 AD).

According to the church tradition, men from the butcher’s of Karagats gave ​​ as a gift to the village church an icon of 1815 depicting the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, which still exists today and is celebrated on November 8th.

Rizia is from those villages that were totally destroyed during the Balkan Wars.