Kefalovryso, Trikala 1.99

Kefalovryso is a village in Trikala regional unit, Greece. In 2011 Kefalovryso had a population of 952. It is located 7 kilometers northwest of Trikala in the Thessalian Plain and close to the river Pineios.Early history (1163-1881)Kefalovryso's initial name was Mertzi or literally Mertzion . The word Mertzi -by olders sometimes still in use as Mertsi- probably derives from the old Slavic word мрч, which means dark/black and might refer to the dark color of the soil. The first official reference to Mertzi is in an 1163 document of the Holy Bishopric of Stagai, and it is again found in several 14th-century monastic property deeds.Mertzion, just like all Thessaly, was initially part of the Byzantine Empire. In 1204, after the Fourth Crusade, Thessaly was assigned to Boniface of Montferrat and in 1225 was conquered by Theodore Komnenos Doukas, ruler of Epirus. From 1271 to 1318 it was an independent despotate that extended to Acarnania and Aetolia, run by a branch of the Epirote Komnenos Doukas dynasty. In 1309 the Almogavars of the Catalan Company of the East settled there for a time. Later it was occupied by the Serbs until 1393, when it fell under Ottoman rule. In 1821 Thessaly participated in the Greek War of Independence, but did not become part of independent Greece until 1881.