Many times I have asked myself what are the reasons that in the last decades have made me return to Zagori again and again. I initially believed that it was a romantic and subconscious need to return to my mother’s ancestral roots in Eastern Zagori and Metsovo. In the process I realized that it was something more direct and stronger. It was an overall magnetic pull and a permanent surprise I felt from the unpredictable disguises of Zagori’s diverse landscape, every season of the year, every hour of the day.
Today, after so many years and so many visits, I continue to discover new, unseen corners of the place. And I wonder if the moment will come one day when I will exclaim: “yes, I finally know Zagori now!”

Many times I have asked myself what are the reasons that in the last decades have made me return again and again to Zagori. I initially believed that it was a romantic and subconscious need to return to my mother’s ancestral roots in Eastern Zagori and Metsovo. In the process I realized that it was something more direct and stronger. It was an overall magnetic pull and a permanent surprise I felt from the unpredictable disguises of Zagori’s diverse landscape, every season of the year, every hour of the day.
Today, after so many years and so many visits, I continue to discover new, unseen corners of the place. And I wonder if the moment will come one day when I will exclaim: “yes, I finally know Zagori now!”
“ZAGORI”
According to the most popular version, the name Zagori is due to the compound Slavic word “za-gori”, where za means back and gori means mountain. The mountain is none other than “Mitsikeli”, this elongated and compact mountain range, which extends from SW to NW and prohibits any visual contact between the Ioannina basin and the villages of Zagori. Along the entire length of its northeastern foothills, Mitsikeli is the site of many Zagori settlements. It is a place that is literally ‘behind the mountain’. It lacks the glamour and fame of other areas of Zagori, which have become famous in recent decades. Nor are the streets and squares of the villages overrun by caravans of tourists. Here life still flows at a slow and calm pace, seeming to invite us to a romantic return to the past.
So let’s stray for a while from the much advertised destinations of Zagori and discover what the place “behind the mountain” has to offer.
IN THE SETTLEMENT OF ASPRAGELION
From Ioannina we head towards Konitsa and immediately after the settlement “Metamorfosi” or “Karyes” we leave the main road and turn right. For about 7 km the road climbs uphill with a panoramic view of the plain of Lapsista. It is the locality with the local name “Rodovani”, which means “winding road”. At the top of the route, the monument of the “Pindos Woman”, an eternal symbol of the sacrifice and self-denial of the women of Epirus in the War of the 40s, stands out. Immediately afterwards, the road turns southwest and crosses one of the few extensive lowlands in Zagori.
Towards the end of the plain, a solitary two-storey stone-clad house dominates.
It is the ‘INFORMATION CENTRE OF THE NORTHERN PINDUS NATIONAL PARK’. Its location at the entrance of Zagori is strategic and its role is very important for the information of the visitor. Maps, information about the natural and man-made environment, a variety of informative brochures and, above all, a kind employee willing to provide any information about Zagori. On the ground floor there are two traditional costumes, one from Zagoria and one from Sarakatsani, as well as handicrafts from the two Household Schools, the ‘Rizarioio’ in Monodendri and the ‘Lamoriateio’ in Ano Pedina. An environmental information room and a room for hosting researchers from the region are located on the second floor. The Centre opened in June 2003 and so far the number of visitors exceeds 2000.
A few hundred metres past the Centre we are in front of the main entrance gate to Zagori. On the left the road leads to Central and Eastern Zagori, to some of the most famous villages: Vitsa, Monodendri, Tsepelovo, Kipi and many others.
In the straight line it passes successively through Elati. The villages are built on the foothills of the Mistikoeli. Finally, on the right, it ends, after about 800 metres, at Aspraggeloi, which are just visible. Here is the headquarters of the Municipality of Central Zagori, the Town Hall and the hospitable Mayor Gabriel Papanastasiou, who puts at our disposal any information about his place.
The image of Aspragela is quite contradictory. At the initial approach we have the impression that we are not in a traditional settlement of Zagori since the main road is spacious, the church of Panagia – although stone-built – is new (built in 1915), many houses have tiled roofs and others have tin roofs and in addition there are two squares with many parking spaces, taverns, a basketball court and a large open space. Opposite the large square with the huge plane tree there is a concrete building of unacceptable aesthetics.
However, a closer approach reveals – in the western part of the settlement above the square – elements typical and familiar to the villages of Zagori. Here we find uphill streets, dense construction, stone and tiled houses and several dilapidated old houses with genuine Zagori architecture. But the most important building, which reveals all the otherworldly glamour and the authentic Zagori past of the settlement, is the church of Agios Nikolaos, a short distance away and to the west of the village square.
The stone lintel of the once magnificent church bears the date 1776. However, the historicity and imposing dimensions of the monument did not deter the Germans from the heinous act of destroying it in 1943. Together they destroyed almost the entire settlement, of which only 12 houses survived. This total destruction came on top of the partial destruction by the Turks in 1912. It is therefore – to a large extent – justified the present, very little traditional appearance of Aspragela.
What remains of the church of St. Nicholas are the perimeter walls, the wall of the sanctuary and the magnificent floor covered with slabs of two colours. Even in this state, the church is suggestive, exuding a strong aura of a ruined ancient sanctuary.
The old name of the village – renamed in 1928 to Aspraggelous – was ‘Dovra’. According to I. Lambrides (1), the name is Slavic and means ‘good’, but it is disputed by later historians.
The birth of the settlement is lost in the mists of time and there is no evidence of the first settlers. Early organized groups of farmers and warriors must have lived there. This was due to the flora and the altitude of the area, which allowed their cattle to graze in all seasons, and also to the configuration of the terrain, which was suitable for defence. (2) According to Lambrides’ description, ‘Dovra lies in a stony valley, divided into four districts and in the middle, near a small square, has a well notable for the quality of its water. The women preserve many customs and traditions of ancient sleep, and the men are active and energetic, skilfully passing through the trade’.
Towards the end of the 19th century the village had 1300 inhabitants. In 1976 it had a two-seat primary school with 30 children, which closed in 1979-80. Today Asprangeli – one of the largest once Zagorochoria – has 50 permanent residents. The village, however, has an aspect of vitality that is missing from other settlements in Zagori. The existence of the Town Hall, the tavernas, the three guesthouses, the shooting range that hosts national competitions 3-4 times a year and the hang-glider and parachute track, where national competitions are held 1-2 times a year, all contribute to this.
IN THE SETTLEMENT OF ELATI
From Aspraggelos we exit again on the main road network and head right for Elati. Already in front of us the panorama of the ridge of Tymfi is revealed, while the nearby horizon is covered by the rich relief of countless forested hills, trenches and ground folds. The huge gap between the Viko Gorge and Monodendri and Vitsa is very clearly visible. On the opposite slopes of the gorge, the settlements of Kapessovo and Vradeto can be seen perched on the rocky slopes.
At a distance of 1.2 km from the crossroads of Aspragela we enter the first houses of Elati, at an altitude of 920 metres.
Unlike most of the settlements of Zagori, which take advantage of positions on the foothills and leeward side, Elati – like the other villages of Mitsikeli – is built with a N-NE orientation. As a result, the sun’s rays fall obliquely and not directly. During the winter – especially in winter – this fact definitely affects the climatic conditions of the village. This was already noted in 1870 by Lambrides, who reported the following about Elati: ‘You are in the suburb of Mitsikeli, which is on the Zagorion, on a hill that is downhill and sheltered. It consists of three districts, separated from each other by lakes and forests. And in summer it is very hot, and in winter unpleasant, as is Papigon. And generally its products, being little warmed by the sun, are late.
The old name of the village was ‘Bultsi’ (renamed ‘Elati’ in 1926). According to Lambrides, the first settlement in the area, in three different places, was around 1600 by farmers from ‘Gavrissi’, a village in the Kourenton area.
Later, around the year 1698, other inhabitants from various villages joined and established Bultsi. Their main occupation was carpentry, so they were called ‘Materades’, but later they abandoned it and engaged in trade. Labridis concludes: “Such was the power they had over Ali-Pasha through the leader of the Karakostas, that only they were allowed to go out of Ioannina by night.”
In the years of Lambrides the settlement had 450 inhabitants, while the permanent residents today do not exceed 15.
The area of the village is small, the houses are built sparsely among dense vegetation. A main paved road crosses the village from SE to NW.
As we go downhill we meet on the right an uphill grassy cobbled street, which in two minutes leads us to the church of St. George. The church was originally built in 1806, burnt down in 1976 and rebuilt in 1981 when it was reopened.
At the entrance of the village we are greeted by a large stone covered spring, originally built in 1880 and renovated by the community in 1963. Near the spring there is a sign directing us left downhill to the old ruined mill and Agios Minas. With George Gkioka and Spyros Vangelakis we set out to discover this unseen location of the village. The beginning of the route is marked by a wide path, which is actually a cobbled path, but so grassy that it is barely visible. The cobbled path runs steeply through the last houses in the village, stone houses, large and traditional, but closed and apparently open their doors to their owners in the summer and at weekends. On our left, a gully descends, overgrown with walnut, cherry, chestnut, cedar, maple and oak trees. A little later, the oak forest dominates.
In 10 minutes the downhill ends, we reach a nice little valley at the location “Guziulo”. A very good sign (through the “LIFE” project) shows NW the direction to the “LIVADAKIA” site in 20 minutes and E-NW to Ag. The map shows the direction to the south of the island and to the south of the island to the direction of A.M. MENA in 40 minutes. A few metres away, the ruins of the old watermill are preserved. An unexpected companion from the first meters of our course is a nice little cat of the village, which is constantly running around in our feet and follows us in every movement.
Below the watermill, in a wonderful natural environment, we can see the bed of a torrent, which is dry at this time of year. The two banks of the stream are connected by a stone single-arch bridge, of excellent and very solid construction. From its very wide deck, 3 metres wide, the path passes through, which later meets the road to Aghios Minas, outside Dilofo.
We take the uphill and quite strenuous way back, but very soon we realize that the kitty is no longer with us. Perhaps somewhere more interesting came out. If it were a dog, it would undoubtedly have accompanied us to the village.
A few dozen meters from the spring, on the main paved road of the village, is the traditional hotel “ELATI”. The house was an old mansion built in 1867 and passed to its current owners (Alekos Giannakopoulos and his son Andreas) in 1979. The hotel started operating as a hotel in September 1991. Before entering the interior we admire for a while the view from the open-air paved terrace, which will definitely be very popular during the summer season.
The living room floor is paved and the stone fireplace is one of 7 that the mansion once had. The roof is made of traditional handmade laths and all the furnishings are handmade beech. The dining area is independent, with its own fireplace, handmade furniture and fixtures that are authentic antiques. Very beautiful are the decorative plates and a Bakiren carved “chinoiserie”. The rooms are also decorated in the same philosophy of the common areas and all have central heating and TV.
Hotel ELATI attaches great importance to its cuisine. Here the undisputed boss is Mr. Alexis, a restaurateur in Canada for 30 years, with inexhaustible stories about the flourishing Greek family.
– Come back and let me buy you a chippouraki, says Mr. Alexis.
He makes the tsipouro himself and it is of excellent quality. It is served first with olives and kefalotyri. But our host is not satisfied. So his son Andreas brings to the table “σύγκlino” and honeypig stew, which, of course, it is difficult for me to describe their taste. The tsipouro is replaced by an excellent red Messinian wine.
– How did the Messinian wine come from Zagori? I would probably expect a Zitsa wine or some other local wine.
– But I’m a Messinian, he replies with a laugh.
The Epirus in the family is my wife.
We welcome to our company Petros Fragoulis, a physicist and writer from Skamneli Zagori. A few years ago we had presented in the magazine the amazing photo album “Zagorizion Politia” published by Petros. I did not imagine, however, that I would have the luck in a short time to meet him personally and hear from his mouth unknown details about the history of this album and the adventurous collection of his photographic material. A material, most of which was created by his grandfather Theophanis Fragoulis, a Scholar from Skamneli, either by collecting or photographing himself with an ancient “PARIS” camera of 1903 that still exists.
– My grandfather’s huge and immeasurably valuable photographic archive included 5,000 photographic plates as early as 1850, says Peter. From the wreckage of the Civil War I managed to salvage about 300, a large portion of which are included in the scrapbook.
(Note: On 26.1.2005, at the Historical Centre of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, on Hippodrome Street, an exhibition by Petros Fragoulis on the subject: “ZAGORISIAN POLITICS, Photography 1850-1950”. Selected Municipal Zagori Music and excerpts of Zagori’s history will be played.
For more information, P. Fragoulis’ phone number is: 2310-952460).
The second traditional accommodation that completes the tourist infrastructure of Elatias is the guesthouse “RONDOVANI”, which started its operation in August 1999 and is located a few tens of meters from the central square of the village. The name of course, which means “winding road”, is due to the homonymous location that we find before the statue of the “Pindos Woman”.
The guesthouse is housed in an old building of 1854, which was renovated and modernized, keeping its architectural character intact. It is actually two independent buildings, which communicate with each other through a common courtyard.
The first house includes 3 rooms and the common living room. The second, which is two storeys high, has one room on each floor. Here too, the attraction during the summer season is the beautiful paved courtyard. The living room is a cosy space with a fireplace and old objects, among which a wonderful chest with mother-of-pearl decoration stands out. The ceiling is made of traditional slats, while a skylight on the ceiling allows plenty of light to enter. Each room is painted in a different colour and has its own personality. One of them has an original, perfectly preserved ceiling, at least 100 years old. Another has a stone fireplace with the date 1900 embossed on the stone. All are equipped with independent heating, TV and traditional Zagorist furniture, creating a warm space with a strong aura of the past.
A very important service of Elati to the visitor or passerby from the area – and indeed on a daily basis throughout the year – is the operation of the tavern “STA RIZA”, in the central square of the village. It is an extremely stylish room, paved with paving stones and with slats on the ceiling. The balcony with its summer tables is a stunning balcony with a unique view of the ridge of Tymfi, the villages of Zagori and all the verdant terrain in between. Despite the clouds and the chill of the day, two elderly people of the village are relaxing on the balcony with their tsipouroki. We sit next to them and listen to their stories about the frequent appearances of the bear in the area and its special fondness for beehives.
The variety of the cuisine is fascinating and the quality is equally great. When Sakis Stefanou from Kaloutas took over the tavern, no one thought it could be run on a daily basis. Not only did he succeed but he gained the recognition of the whole region. During our time in the place we had the opportunity to taste some of his many homemade pies, wild mushrooms with cheese and cheese or with butter and garlic, giants and greens, pumpkin and potato patties, boiled goat and lamb in oil paper. There were, of course, many others, including leek and leek stew, rabbit stew and wild boar in the pot. Regardless of the excellent variety and quality, we believe that the most important thing is for the traveller to know that all year round, even on weekdays, he can find in Elati an open and welcoming tavern, with a fireplace lit in winter and a wonderful coolness in summer. (Taverna “STA RIZA”, Tel. 26530-71550 and 6937-037544).
IN THE PICTURESQUE DICORF
From Elati we continue our tour to Dikorfo. At 1,4 km. we meet the beautiful chapel of Ag. Triada at an elevated point on the left of the road. The route to Dikorfo passes through a wonderful natural environment with rich vegetation of pine, fir, maple, oak, hazelnut and many other deciduous trees.
8 km after the square of Elati we enter the first houses of Dikorfos. The old name of the village was “Tsondila”. It was renamed to Dikorfo in 1987. about the old Tsondila, Lambrides wrote 130 years ago that “it is a wonderful place with 800 inhabitants. It is situated on a rheumatic, sheltered and confluent valley in the subterranean valley of Michikeli and consists of three districts’.
Speaking of the wider natural environment of the village, Lambrides mentions a 90-foot-high cliff with a cave, where the inhabitants found shelter from Albanian raids. Labridis continues: “O far from this rock there is a pharax deep, where a four-syllable echo is formed! Chondila is covered with forests and even in the Polygenia position, where a multitude of boars, dorcas and goats can be found and are enriched with clear and cold waters’.
But of the inhabitants of the village, Lambrides did not have the same good opinion of its nature. So he wrote: “The inhabitants of this unfortunate village – and even the women, began to introduce many of the customs and manners of today’s civilization. In the past Chondila maintained two good schools; today, due to disagreement, none, although from some income of the village and the church they are given to maintain two worthy ones. Shame!”
There are no schools today either. And how could there be, when the village has no more than three permanent residents! However, the imposing stone building of the old Arrenagodionio, a reminder of the village’s former prosperity, still dominates the beautiful little square. It was built at the expense of Tasoula Stathis in 1912 and operated until the end of the 1950s. Today a part of it houses the offices of the village association.
The Arrenagodionio, which occupies the northern part of the square, is a peculiar building with an open lower part, leading to the courtyard of the church of Agios Minas (3). It is an imposing stone basilica, built in 1778, the year in which Cosmas the Aetolian toured Epirus. The thick wooden door is reinforced with large nails, while the small windows, high above the ground, reveal the defensive character of the church during the years of raids. The fresco, which was completed in 1812, is preserved in fairly good condition. The iconostasis is old, carved in wood, with deep carving.
Outside the church stands the tall hexagonal bell tower, built in 1896 at the expense of Nikolaos Sakellariou. With the intervening wear and tear and more recent shoddy interventions, the bell tower has lost much of its former glory and certainly the clock with the wooden disc, commissioned by its donor in Vienna, does not survive. However, the view from the church’s location – towards Tymfi, the village’s districts and Mitsikeli – remains stunning, even if in some places it is brutally obstructed by the – ubiquitous – infuriating cables of the Public Power Corporation.
We return to the small picturesque square, with the large plane tree and the fountain, a typical and familiar image of a Zagori settlement. The square was paved and took its present form in 1956. The event was hailed with the following words by the ‘Zagorian News’ of the time:
“The residents of Dikorfos are watching with great joy the work on the square of their community, which will be finished within a few days and will endow the beautiful village with another ornament”.
And it is indeed an ornament, which once, with its shops, fairs and gatherings of the inhabitants, was the centre of the social life of the settlement. Today what remains is the now defunct Community Store to the east, with the Mesaria Coffee Shop on the ground floor, which operates on Wednesdays, holidays and weekends.
Next to the Community there is still a cell of life. It is the tiny café of Mrs. Calypso, which for 10 years now has always been open, winter and summer. At 85 years old, the old lady keeps her own house and this little shop that she rents from the church. She too could go to her son and grandchildren, who visit her regularly.
But she prefers, as long as she can bear it, to stay in her place.
– The village is deserted, says Mrs. Calypso bitterly. I remember the old glories and I ache. But even so, I love it and I like it. Here I was born, here I was married and here I want to die.
At 3:30 in the afternoon a car enters the square. It’s the postman coming to pay the pensions. Three elderly women from the village have been waiting for him for a long time, signing and collecting the few precious euros. Together with us they were the only regulars in the little café of Mrs. Calypso on this weekday. However, despite the current picture of abandonment and desolation, we can see a glimmer of optimism in the immediate future of the village. This is due to the existence of two traditional guesthouses erected in two different parts of the village, the “beyond” and the “down mahala”.
The views from both are top notch, and, with the rapid pace of work underway, they will probably be open by next year’s summer season. It is the only way to revive Dikorfo, one of the most beautiful villages in Zagori.
After a nice tour in the three mahalades of the village, with the traditional big houses and the remaining cobbled streets, we get back on the main network heading east towards “Manassi” and “Kalouta”. Before moving towards these two settlements, however, we turn to the right (south) immediately after the exit of Dikorfos. It is an uphill dirt road that enters the depths of Mitsikelios. During the summer season – apart from some minor difficulties – the road is passable by conventional cars. Very quickly we find ourselves surrounded by a wonderful natural environment with a forest of fir trees, reddish maple trees and lush micro meadows.
As we ascend we remember the words of Lambrides. Around the church there are also remains of a fortress of a more recent and equal era.
The chapel is initially unseen, but we have no doubt about its existence, both because of the description of Lambrides, and from the marking of its position on the very good map of Zagori (ANABASI 1:50,000) that we have with us.
Two kilometres after leaving the asphalt road we meet a detour on our right, which after 300m of rough dirt road leads us to Agios Ioannis. The chapel is a large single-aisled basilica, with a construction date of 1898. This date is about 30 years later than the time when Lambrides mentioned the chapel. Our question is answered by Papagiannopoulos’ book (4): ‘There used to be another chapel dedicated to the saint, unknown by whom it was built and when. That chapel was destroyed in 1879 by a terrible earthquake, which was centred in the area between Koukouli and Tsepelovo’. The church is stone-built and covered with black slate. Unfortunately, stones from the ruins of the old fortress mentioned by Lambrides were used in its masonry.
A new cobbled path leads us to the edge of the rock, where the bell tower of St. John is located. It is a relatively new building on the site of the old stone building, which collapsed in an earthquake in the late 1960s.
The ascent to Michikeli continues, fascinating and with varied landscape changes. At a distance of 3.2 km from Dikorfo, we reach a furrow, wide open to the south and the panoramic plain of Lapsista, a vast natural carpet with countless geometric formations from the various crops. The microclimate of the area changes in an instant. A fierce and chilling NW wind brings tears to our eyes and forces us to get back in the car.
The road continues in a SE direction, at about the height of the ridge of the long mountain. At first it is passable, but later it becomes rough, totally unsuitable for conventional cars. But the landscapes that reveal themselves to our eyes are incredibly beautiful and varied, a constant alternation of fir forests, ravines, gentle and steep slopes, cows grazing in meadows, an overall complex relief created by successive folds and excrescences of the terrain. It is a spectacle in the interior of Mitsikeli, which is impossible to suspect when gazing at it from the plain of Ioannina.
At a distance of 6,5 km from Dikorfo we stop. Low in the distance we can see part of the city of Ioannina and in the distance to the southwest the imposing bulk of Tzoumerka. It is certain, that at some point we will return with ease of time and with an exploratory look, to this beautiful mountain, which so jealously hides behind its long ridge every view of Zagori.
MANASSI, KALOTA, AND MONASTERY OF THE VIRGIN MARY OF VYSIKOS
At Dikorfo, all notion of tourist infrastructure on this side of Zagori ends, but we, however, extend our itinerary a little further to the settlements of Manassi and Kalota. The place is always overgrown with the variety of vegetation of the Mitsikeli suburbs. A characteristic feature of the route is the successive closed bends.
At a distance of 3 km from Dikorfo, we cross the small settlement of Manassi with the beautiful little church of St. George, built in 1780, the small square with the plane tree, the small closed café and the complete absence of tourist infrastructure. The current permanent residents are few. However, during the years of Lambrides, the village was inhabited by 430 people and was famous for its wine. The name ‘Manassi’ is thought to have been taken in 1542 by Manassi, the lord of the castle of Ioannina, who first inhabited the settlement.(5) However, the settlement was already mentioned in 1430 among the 14 villages of Voiniko.
About one and a half kilometres after the village a sign on the left of the road directs us to the bridge of the “Vainades”. Going down the path we reach the bridge in less than a minute, which is almost invisible in the dense vegetation. Next to it there is a beautiful stone iconostasis from 1908. The bridge is single-arched, with a deck length of 10 metres, a width of 2 metres and an arch span of about 4.5 metres. The construction is solid and in good condition, although the masonry is dry-stone, without mortar. A path above the bridge leads after a few minutes to Kalota, which is about 3 km by road from Manassi.
Lambrides says of Kalota that ‘this village, which is very small and verdant, is situated in the northern suburbs of Michkell and is divided into three districts’. According to Anast. Vlahopoulos, ‘Kalota was named after its founder Buloukbasis Kalota, son of the landowner Kalota in Ioannina, whose family was ancestral from 1540’.
A very nice cobbled street leads to the interior of the settlement and to the square with the large church of Metamorphosis of Sotiros (1854) and the stone bell tower. A sign on the asphalt leads us to the left towards the “Ziaka-Tene” fountains. At first, a rough dirt road of about 200 metres, which immediately turns into a wonderful old cobbled road through an oak forest and large chestnut trees. In three minutes we reach the paved fountain with cool but scarce water. We return to the main road network and after 3 km we meet a sign on the left of the road that leads us to the Monastery of the Dormition of Theotokos Vysikos. We take a fairly passable dirt road and after a few hundred meters we turn left at a detour. Already opposite us stands the imposing three-arch bridge of Kalotas. It is one of the largest bridges of Zagori with a length of 45 meters and a deck width of 2.5 meters. The maximum height from the riverbed is 5 meters, while the span of the central arch is 7. The structure is too heavy to withstand the rushing water pressure. The ruined walls of an old watermill are preserved next to it.
We continue on our way between oak-covered slopes. At a distance of 2.2 km from the asphalt road we are in front of the Monastery of Panagia Vysikos or Vissiko. According to Lambrides, “the monastery of the dissolved village of Vissiko was founded in 1114 by Archon Michael, as is evident from the inscription of the monk. About this archon of Zagori the ‘Chronicle of Vocha’ notes that he is the leader. The monastery was restored in 1787 by the abbot Constantine and was built in 1818 by the monk Anthimos from Kalota and the pilgrims Theodosius and Christoforos from Tsondila’.
The entrance of the monastery is closed and its interior remains enigmatic for us at present. The structure is stone-built, heavy and fortified. The high mantry wall continues into the walls of the cells with small iron-barred windows and then into the Katholikon with its buttresses in the niche of the sanctuary, where a half-ruined stone relief can be seen. The monastery opens its doors every year on the eve of 15 August. At that time there is a big celebration with the participation of inhabitants from all the surrounding villages.
10 meters in front of the entrance of the monastery we are impressed by another work of the Zagorians. It is the Monastery’s Aloni, a construction masterpiece with impeccable rectangular slabs, arranged in concentric circles around the centre of the Aloni. The threshing floor, 8 metres in diameter, is surrounded by a stone terrace, which, like the floor, is in excellent condition and has two openings: a large one for the entrance of the animal and a small one for the grain sack. But what we consider unique in our experience so far is the paved floor, which is not flat but slightly tapered with a slope towards the centre.
Next to the threshing floor rises an over-aged oak tree, and across the road stands the Mitzikeli. It is a fantastic landscape, which closes in the most beautiful way our journey to this little-known corner of Zagori.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the Mayor of Central Zagori for the information and help in our work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
-Ι. Lambrides, “HEPIROTIC FOOD”, ed. I. LAMBRIDIS, ed.
-Ι. Lampridis, “HEPIROTIC METALS”, ed. Etaireias Ipeirotikon MELETON, Ioannina 1993.
-D. Papagiannopoulos, ‘ZAGORIO LAW’, ATHENS 1994.
-Φ. Tziovas, “Chronicle of Dovras”, YIANNINA 1981
-Ε. P. Makris, “THE ZAGOCHORIA”, IOANNINA 1996
-Χ. Papaioannou, “PROTECTED AREA OF NORTH PINDU”, ed. IPEIROS S.A., 1st ed. 2001.