Marathousa is a lowland village built in the unique and rich in wildland plain of Chalkidiki. Once, Marathousa was an autonomous and independent community, but today it belongs to the Municipality of Polygyros and other neighboring villages are a unified geographical unit with many common points and the common name “Zervochoria”. The settlements that form the Local Community of Marathousa are Marathousa altitude 180m, and Platanochori at an altitude of 200m.
Marathousa once belonged to Ancient Apollonia and it supplied wood and clay. From antiquity to the present day, two rivers run alongside Marathousa, Megalos Rema or Kotscarlis, which in antiquity was called Olynthiakos and Amitis, which leads to Lake Volvi. In the years 976 – 1014 AD. Bulgarian nationals penetrate the area and work as laborers. They have their own names for the villages and locations with the ultimate purpose of evoking the area. This explains the old name of Marathousa was “Ravna or Ravna” which means straightening – plateau. In 1453, the smooth and fertile land of Marathousa attracted the Turkish conquerors which create a village in the place of today’s Marathousa while retaining the name Ravna. In 1912 the Turks abandoned Marathousa as well as the other Zervochoria. After 1922, a considerable number of refugees from Asia Minor settled in from Eastern Thrace, resulting in Marathousa being manned by residents. In 1928 & 1929 locals from Paleochora, Riza, Krimni moved to Marathousa and much later Sarakatsans.
With the war of 1940 many residents left Marathousa and in 1944 was once again completely destroyed by the occupying army. The army gathered the people in the square where they were waiting for their machine-guns. On that day, the mosque that existed and which the Minorites had turned into an Orthodox temple was burned. The next day they burned the village and the helpless old people and those who did not get out of their homes. More than fifteen people of the National Resistance were executed in Platana. The remaining inhabitants abandoned their homes and found shelter in Nea Apollonia, Pazaroudas, Arnaia. Most of them returned quickly and settled in rough huts in the place name “Baxedes. In their homes they settled down when the occupying army left. The return of the inhabitants of Marathousa was completed in 1950. At 2-3 km north of Marathousa, Platana is located, with the monument of the National Resistance of 1944.
Main occupations are agriculture and livestock farming. The main church is that of Saint George, which is a three-aisled and was built in 1954. In the same place there are chapels of St. Fanourios and Aghia Magdalene.
