Epiro

From the Molossians to the kingdom of Pyrrhus: a history written among the mountains

Epirus enters history with the tribes of the Molossians, the Thesprotians and the Chaonians, Greek mountain peoples who united under a single crown in the 4th century BC. Its most famous ruler was Pyrrhus, the king who in the 3rd century BC challenged Rome with armies and war elephants, winning victories so costly in human lives that they gave rise to the expression "Pyrrhic victory", still used all over the world today. After his death Epirus passed under Roman rule, then Byzantine; with the fall of Constantinople in 1204 it became the seat of its own Despotate, one of the longest-lived and most combative of Byzantium's successor states. Conquered by the Ottomans in the 15th century, the region nonetheless retained a relative mountain autonomy, which culminated in the semi-independent pashalik of Ali Pasha between the 18th and 19th centuries. Union with modern Greece came only in 1913, at the end of the Balkan Wars, when Greek troops entered Ioannina: a later reunification than the rest of the country, which explains many of Epirus's cultural peculiarities.

Zagori, forty-six villages of stone

North-east of Ioannina lies Zagori (Zagorochoria), a karst plateau cut by gorges and forests where forty-six villages built of local stone have remained remarkably intact. The houses, built from the same grey rock as the surrounding mountains and roofed with slate, follow a unique architectural canon recognised by the Greek state as a protected traditional settlement; villages such as Papingo (Megalo and Mikro Papingo), Monodendri, Vitsa or Kipoi preserve cobbled squares, centuries-old plane trees and churches with carved wooden iconostases. The wealth of these villages did not come from agriculture, which is poor on such steep terrain, but from trade: for centuries the men of Zagori emigrated as merchants, doctors and teachers to the great cities of the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, later returning to build stately houses and to fund schools and bridges. Today many of those buildings have become charming guesthouses, a destination for slow tourism made of walking, silence and architecture.

The Vikos gorge, among the deepest on the planet

Between the plateaus of Papingo and Monodendri opens one of the most impressive natural spectacles in Greece: the Vikos gorge, carved by the river of the same name to a depth that in places exceeds its width by more than a kilometre, to the point of entering the Guinness Book of Records as one of the deepest gorges in the world relative to its width. Protected within the Vikos-Aoos National Park, the gorge can be admired from above at the Oxya and Beloi viewpoints, or crossed on foot with a full-day trek that descends from Monodendri to Papingo, amid limestone walls, beech forests and the dry or semi-dry bed of the stream depending on the season. It is a demanding walk but within reach of trained hikers, rewarded by a landscape that changes colour with every bend.

The Pindus, the mountainous backbone of Greece

The Pindus massif runs through Epirus from north to south and is called by the Greeks "the backbone" of the country: here stands Mount Tymfi (or Gamila), which at 2,497 metres dominates Zagori, and Mount Smolikas, Greece's second-highest peak after Mount Olympus, on the border with Albania. The beech and black pine forests, the high-altitude lakes such as Drakolimni ("dragon lake") beneath the summit of Tymfi, and the pastures where transhumance is still practised make the Pindus a paradise for trekking, climbing and, in winter, cross-country skiing at the nearby resort of Metsovo. The wildlife includes wolves, brown bears and Balkan chamois, protected within the national park areas: a wild heritage now rare in the rest of Europe.

Sivota and the coves of Thesprotia

Further south, in the historic prefecture of Thesprotia, the village of Sivota faces an archipelago of wooded islets that break the waves and create almost lake-like coves, in colours ranging from emerald green to cobalt blue depending on depth. Far less visited than Parga, Sivota still retains the soul of a fishing village, with a small harbour from which rental boats and excursions set off toward beaches reachable only by sea, such as Mega Ammos and Bella Vraka. The coast then runs down toward Igoumenitsa, the region's main port and a crossroads for ferries to Italy and the Ionian Islands.

Metsovo, the Vlach village on the ridge of the Pindus

Perched at over 1,150 metres along the ancient route linking Ioannina to Thessaly, Metsovo is the historic centre of the Vlachs, a population of transhumant shepherds speaking a Latin-derived language who have preserved their customs, wood-and-stone architecture and strong sense of identity to this day. The village owes much of its modern development to the Averof-Tositsa family, patrons who in the 19th and 20th centuries funded schools, a museum of folk art and the modern Katogi Averof winery, among the first to produce quality wines in northern Greece. Metsovo is also home to metsovone, a smoked pasta filata cheese protected by designation of origin, and in winter it becomes the gateway to the ski slopes of the Pindus.

Unmissable experiences in Epirus

Between mountain and sea, Epirus lends itself to an active kind of tourism that combines hiking, water and architecture, and it is precisely this variety that makes it a rare case on the Greek scene.

• Trekking the Vikos gorge on foot from Monodendri to Papingo
• Rafting or kayaking on the Voidomatis river
• Visiting the islet on Lake Ioannina and its monasteries
• Walking the stone bridges of Zagori from one village to the next
• Attending a performance at the ancient theatre of Dodona
• Swimming in the bays of Sivota or at Valtos, beneath the castle of Parga
• Climbing to Drakolimni on Mount Tymfi on a multi-day trek
• Tasting pites at the traditional bakeries of the Zagori villages