Bigadiç

Bigadiç is a municipality and district of Balıkesir Province, Turkey.[2] Its area is 1,108 km2,[3] and its population is 48,917 (2022).[1] As former Ancient bishopric of Achyraus, it remains a Latin Catholic titular see.

Bigadiç
Municipality
Map showing Bigadiç District in Balıkesir Province
Map showing Bigadiç District in Balıkesir Province
Bigadiç is located in Turkey
Bigadiç
Bigadiç
Location in Turkey
Bigadiç is located in Marmara
Bigadiç
Bigadiç
Bigadiç (Marmara)
Coordinates: 39°23′33″N 28°07′52″E
CountryTurkey
ProvinceBalıkesir
Government
 • Mayorİsmail Avcu (AKP)
Area
1,108 km2 (428 sq mi)
Elevation
160 m (520 ft)
Population
 (2022)[1]
48,917
 • Density44/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zoneTRT (UTC+3)
Postal code
10440
Area code0266
Websitewww.bigadic.bel.tr

Bigadiç has the largest Boron reserves of both Turkey and the world. Also, villages of Bigadiç have natural thermal water reserves which contains Selenium and Sulfur.

Etymology

The oldest known name of Bigadiç is ancient Greek Achyraos (Αχυράους in Ancient Greek), Latin(ized) Achyraus, renamed during the Byzantine era Pegadia (Πηγάδια), which means "springs, wells", from which it evolved to Begadia, to Begados, and eventually to the Turkishized name Bugadıç. Some support the popular etymology that Boğadıç would mean "Bull meadow" (Boğa being the Turkish word for a bull).

Composition

There are 80 neighbourhoods in Bigadiç District:[4]

Ecclesiastical history

Ancient Achyraus was situated in the Roman province of Hellespontus, in the civil Diocese of Pontus. Circa 400 it became a suffragan see of the provincial capital and metropolitan see Cyzicus, in the sway of Patriarchate of Constantinople.

It is held either identical with former episcopal see Adrianothera,[5] or to have supplanted a neighbouring bishopric of that name, as the Byzantine imperial Notitia Episcopatuum still listed that name in the tenth century, thereafter only Achiraus from the 11th until the thirteenth century.

Four bishops of Adrianothera are known because of their participation in church councils :

Two 13th-century bishops of Achyraus are recorded under that title in the thirteenth century : Leo and Laurentius.[6][7]

Although it was suppressed as a residential Byzantine see (circa 900?), one Tommaso (no other prelature) was appointed Latin Coadjutor Bishop of Achyraus (1505.06.06 – ?).

Titular see

The diocese of Achyraus was nominally restored in 1933 by the Catholic Church as Latin titular bishopric of Achyraus (Latin) / Achirao (Curiate Italian) / Achyraën(sis) (Latin adjective).[8]

It is vacant, having had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank and members of Latin congregations :

Notes and references
  1. "Address-based population registration system (ADNKS) results dated 31 December 2022, Favorite Reports" (XLS). TÜİK. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  2. Büyükşehir İlçe Belediyesi, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  3. "İl ve İlçe Yüz ölçümleri". General Directorate of Mapping. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  4. Mahalle, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  5. Synecdemus et notitiae Graecae episcopatuum, Gustav Parthey (A. M. Hakkert, 1967 reprint), p. 332
  6. Sophrone Pétridès, v. Achyraus, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. I, Paris 1909, col. 333
  7. Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 771-772
  8. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 823
Bibliography - ecclesiastical history
  • Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 3, p. 217.
  • Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 445
  • Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, vol. I, coll. 771-772
  • S. Pétridès, lemma 'Achyraus' in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. I, Paris 1909, col. 333
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