{{For|namesakes|Aulon (disambiguation){{!}}Aulon}} {{Infobox Greek Dimos |name = Avlonari |name_local = Αυλωνάρι |type = community |image_skyline = Avlonari.JPG |caption_skyline = |coordinates = {{coord|38|30|N|24|08|E|format=dms|display=inline,title}} |elevation_min = |elevation_max = | periph = Central Greece | periphunit = Euboea |municipality = Kymi-Aliveri |municunit = Avlon |population_as_of = 2021 |pop_community = 1273 |area = |postal_code = |area_code = |licence = |website = }} '''Avlonari''' ({{langx|el|Αυλωνάρι}}) is a village and a community (unit) of the Municipality Kymi-Aliveri, in the eastern part of the Aegean island of Euboea, Greece. It was the seat of the municipality of Avlon, and the medieval town and bishopric of '''Aulon''', which remains a Latin Catholic titular see. The community includes the villages Chania, Dafni, Elaia and Lofiskos. Avlonari is situated on a hillside, 13km northeast of Aliveri, 15km south of Kymi, Greece and 47km east of Chalcis.
== Population == {| class=wikitable ! Year !! Town population !! Community population |- | 1981 || - || 1,573 |- | 1991 || 776 || - |- | 2001 || 761 || 1,539 |- | 2011 || 637 || 1,354 |- | 2021 || 662 || 1,273 |}
== History == thumb|right|250px|Avlonari, with the medieval watch-tower Modern Avlonari is usually identified with Avlon or Aulon ({{langx|el|Αὐλών}}), a town and bishopric attested since the 9th century.<ref name="TIB">{{Tabula Imperii Byzantini|volume=1|pages=130–131}}</ref> Aulon appears in the ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'', commencing with that of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise ({{reign|886|912}}) as a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Athens,<ref>Heinrich Gelzer, [https://archive.org/stream/abhandlungenbay06klasgoog#page/n595/mode/2up ''Ungedruckte und ungenügend veröffentlichte Texte der Notitiae episcopatuum''], in: Abhandlungen der philosophisch-historische classe der bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1901, p. 556, nº 489.</ref> in the sway of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. No names of its first-millennium bishops are known.<ref>{{Oriens Christianus|volume=2|at=coll. 226-227}}</ref> The Byzantine-era church of St. Demetrios at Chania, in the lowland below Avlonari, built by reusing material from an earlier church, may have been the bishopric's seat.<ref>{{Tabula Imperii Byzantini|volume=1|page=139}}</ref> After the Fourth Crusade (1202–04), Euboea was captured by Crusaders, who divided the island and established Lombard baronies, and Aulon became a diocese of the Latin Church.<ref>{{Oriens Christianus|volume=3|at=coll. 837-838}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Raymond |last=Janin |title=Aulon |url=http://booksnow2.scholarsportal.info/ebooks/oca2/4/dictionnairedhis05bauduoft/dictionnairedhis05bauduoft.pdf |encyclopedia=Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques |volume = V |year= 1931 |at=coll. 671-672}}</ref> A Greek, Theodoros, was appointed, but destituted by the Latin Archbishop of Athens, for refusing to receive his consecration according to the Latin rite; Pope Innocent III restored him after obtaining his liturgical submission (December 1208).<ref>{{Oriens Christianus|volume=3|at=coll. 845-846}}</ref> yet a papal letter from July 1210 already mentions "bishop-elect", plausibly to replace the troublesome Greek Theodoros, whom Innocent III addressed two more letters in 1211.
In about 1222, the see of Aulon (known in Italian as {{lang|it|la Valona}}) was merged with the Bishopric of Negroponte. This was disputed from 1235 on, leading to the restoration of a separate bishop for Aulon ({{lang|la|episcopus Abilonensis}}) in 1240.<ref name="TIB"/> Aulon in attested as a fief in the 14th century, and in the 15th century, under Venetian rule, as an administrative district.<ref name="TIB"/> The district was led by two captains ({{lang|la|Capitanei Avalone}}), who had their seats on fortresses in the nearby heights of Cuppa and Potiri.<ref name="TIB"/> A three-story watch tower also survives in Avlonari itself.<ref name="TIB"/>
The town was raided by the Ottoman Turks in 1423, and captured, along with the rest of Euboea by the Ottoman Empire in 1470.<ref name="TIB"/> Under Ottoman rule, the bishopric of Aulon was merged with a new, Orthodox Metropolis of Euripus.<ref name="TIB"/>
== Titular see == No longer a residential bishopric, this Aulon is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular bishopric, being distinguished from an Adriatic diocese Aulon by using for the Euboean Aulon the Latin adjective ''Aulonensis'', while the Latin adjective regarding the other Aulon in Epirus (modern Vlore, in Albania) is ''Aulonitanus''.<ref>''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 {{ISBN|978-88-209-9070-1}}), p. 842</ref>
The diocese was nominally restored in 1933 as Latin Catholic titular bishopric.
It is vacant, having had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank : * Tomás Juan Carlos Solari (1943.08.23 – 1948.09.20) as Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires (Argentina) (1943.08.23 – 1948.09.20); later Metropolitan Archbishop of La Plata (Argentina) (1948.09.20 – death 1954.05.13) * Manuel Tato (1948.11.13 – 1961.07.11) as Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires (Argentina) (1948.11.13 – 1961.07.11); later Bishop of Santiago del Estero (Argentina) (1961.07.11 – death 1980.08.12) * Manuel Augusto Cárdenas (1962.04.07 – death 1998.07.28), first as Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires (1962.04.07 – 1975.04.22), then as Auxiliary Bishop of Argentina of the Eastern Rite (1975.11.11 – 1992.02.11), finally on emeritate.
== See also == * List of Catholic dioceses in Greece * Aulon for (ancient) namesakes * List of settlements in the Euboea regional unit
== References == <References/>
== Sources and external links == * [http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t0234.htm GCatholic] * [http://menoumellada.ert.gr/archive/video02.asp?id=3101&videoid=2006-06-part1/350k/20060606-avlonari.wmv Video on Avlonari from ERT's travelling program ''Traveling in Greece'' (''Menoume Ellada'')]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} {{in lang|el}}
{{Kymi-Aliveri div}}
Category:Populated places in Euboea Category:Kymi-Aliveri Category:Defunct dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Category:Catholic titular sees in Europe Category:Medieval Euboea