Zagori Views

• General Goods

Zagori (Greek: Ζαγόρι), is a region and a municipality in the Pindus mountains in Epirus, in northwestern Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Asprangeloi.[2] It has an area of some 1,000 square kilometers and contains 45 villages known as Zagoria (or Zagorochoria or Zagorohoria), and is in the shape of an upturned equilateral triangle. The southern corner of the triangle contains the provincial capital, Ioannina, the south-western side is formed by Mount Mitsikeli (1,810m), and the Aoos river and Mount Tymfi constitute the northern side, and the south-eastern side runs along the Varda river to Mount Mavrovouni (2,100m) near Metsovo. The population of the area is about 6,000, which gives a population density of 6 inhabitants per square kilometer, compared to an average of 73.8 for Greece as a whole.

Zagori is an area of great natural beauty, with striking geology and two national parks, one including the river Aoos and the Vikos Gorge, the other around Valia Kalda, to the east of the imposing snow-capped Mt Tymphe. The 45 or so villages of Zagori were interconnected by mountain roads and traditional arched stone bridges until modern roads were opened in the 1950s. The stone arched bridges were built by benefactions from expatriate merchants in the 18th century and replaced older wooden bridges.

The passage of the Slavs during the early Byzantine period is testified to by numerous placenames. Under the Byzantine Empire, Zagori occasionally attracted groups of soldiers who built villages and settled there. Several monasteries were endowed, including the monastery of Votsa near the village of Greveniti and the monastery of the Transfiguration near Kleidonia, founded in the 7th century by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV Pogonatus and the monastery of St John of Rogovou near Tsepelovo founded in 1028 by the sister of Emperor Romanos III Argyros.

From 1204 to 1337 the region was part of the local Despotate of Epirus. In the 14th century, when various Albanian clans made incursions into Epirus, Zagori formed a bastion of Hellenism in Epirus and was the source of soldiers that served in the Ioannina garrison.[9] As a result of the campaigns of Andronikos III Paleologos in 1337, the Despotate of Epirus and, therefore, Zagori along with Ioannina and the surrounding region came again briefly under Byzantine rule.