View source for Laconia

==History==
===Ancient===
{{Main|Sparta}}
[[File:Sparti in-river-Eurotas-valley flanked-by-Taygetos-mountains.jpg|thumb|The theater of ancient [[Sparta]] with modern Sparti and Taygetus in the background]]

Evidence of [[Neolithic]] settlement in southern Laconia has been found during excavations of the [[Alepotrypa cave]] site.<ref>{{Cite book |publisher=The Overlook Press |isbn=978-1-59020-837-3 |last=Cartledge |first=Paul |title=The Spartans |url=https://archive.org/details/spartansworldofw00cart |url-access=registration |date=26 May 2003 }}</ref> Significant archaeological recovery exists at the [[Vaphio|Vaphio-tomb]] site in Laconia. Found there is advanced [[Bronze Age]] art as well as evidence of cultural associations with the contemporaneous [[Minoan]] culture on [[Crete]].<ref>C. Michael Hogan, [http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10854/knossos.html#fieldnotes ''Knossos fieldnotes'', ''Modern Antiquarian'' (2007)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180711201424/http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10854/knossos.html#fieldnotes |date=11 July 2018 }}</ref> At the end of the Mycenean period, the population of Laconia sharply declined.<ref>[[Sarah B. Pomeroy]], Stanley M. Burstein and Walter Donlan (1998) ''Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History'', 512 pages, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-509742-4 }}</ref> In [[classical Greece]], Laconia was Spartan territory but from the 4th century BC onward Sparta lost control of various ports, towns and areas.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cartledge |first1=Paul |title=Sparta and Lakonia: a regional history, 1300-362 B.C. |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=0-415-26276-3 |pages=228–259, 273–277 |edition=2nd }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cartledge |first1=Paul |title=Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: a tale of two cities |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-26277-1 |edition=2nd }}</ref> From the mid-2nd century BC until 395 AD, Laconia was a part of the [[Roman Empire]].

===Medieval===
[[File:Mystras palace.JPG|thumb|Palace of [[Mystras]]]]

In the medieval period, Laconia formed part of the [[Byzantine Empire]]. In the 7th century, [[Early Slavs|Slavic]] tribes settled in the Peloponnese. Two of them, the [[Melingoi]] and the [[Ezeritai]], who settled in parts of Laconia, survived the subsequent Byzantine reconquest and re-Hellenization of the Peloponnese, and are attested until the late Middle Ages.

Following the [[Fourth Crusade]], Laconia was gradually conquered by the [[Frankokratia|Frankish]] [[Principality of Achaea]]. In the 1260s, the Byzantines recovered [[Mystras]] and other fortresses in the region and managed to evict the Franks from Laconia, which became the nucleus of a new Byzantine province. By the mid-14th century, this evolved into the [[Despotate of the Morea]], held by the last [[Byzantine Greeks|Greek]] ruling dynasty, the [[Palaiologoi]]. The capital of the Despotate, Mystras, was a major site of the [[Palaiologan Renaissance]], the last flowering of [[Byzantine culture]]. With the fall of the Despotate to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] in 1460, Laconia was conquered as well.

===Modern===
With the exception of a [[Kingdom of the Morea|30-year interval]] of [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] rule, Laconia remained under Ottoman control until the outbreak of the [[Greek War of Independence]] of 1821. Following independence, Sparta was selected as the capital of the modern prefecture, and its economy and agriculture expanded. With the incorporation of the British-ruled [[United States of the Ionian Islands|Ionian Islands]] into Greece in 1864, [[Elafonissos]] became part of the prefecture. After [[World War II]] and the [[Greek Civil War]], its population began to somewhat decline, as people moved from the villages toward the larger cities of Greece and abroad.

In 1992, a devastating fire ruined the finest [[olive]] crops in the northern part of the prefecture, and affected the area of [[Sellasia]] along with [[Oinountas]] and its surrounding areas. Firefighters, helicopters and planes battled for days to put out the horrific fire.

In early 2006, flooding ruined olive and citrus crops as well as properties and villages along the Eurotas river. In the summer 2006, a fire devastated a part of the Mani Peninsula, ruining forests, crops, and numerous villages.