The Early Modern Zagori Of Northwest Greece-Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou

Landscape-archaeology projects have had a significant impact on our understanding of the deep history of the Greek countryside, but have overwhelmingly been limited to the plains and have rarely placed the Ottoman period at their core. This investigation of Zagori in Northwest Greece explores the archaeology and cultural history of a mountainous area that famously thrived in the Ottoman period.This engagement with an upland region in the early modern period sheds light on previously neglected aspects of Greek landscape history. The inclusive methodology combines critical historiography, archival research, oral history and landscape-archaeological survey to achieve novel insights into this montane landscape and its distinctive history and cultural heritage. Contrary to the dominant nationalist historiography, it demonstrates the continuity of regional elites from the Byzantine to Ottoman period in Epirus and reveals how this shaped settlement patterns and elite/non-elite sedentary adaptations in this montane region. It also gives voice from within to the labour-intensive, engendered, cultural landscape of the Zagori peasantry and challenges the view of external scholarly observers that mountains support a predominantly pastoral way of life.

ZAGORI: Greek Traditional Architecture – Charoula Stamatopoulou 

The book begins with a map, a general overview of the place and historical information and continues with more detailed analysis on the different aspects of local culture.

Lament from Epirus – An Odyssey into Europe’s Oldest Surviving Folk Music – Christopher C. King

In a gramophone shop in Istanbul, renowned record collector Christopher C. King uncovered some of the strangest―and most hypnotic―sounds he had ever heard. The 78s were immensely moving, seeming to tap into a primal well of emotion inaccessible through contemporary music. The songs, King learned, were from Epirus, an area straddling southern Albania and northwestern Greece and boasting a folk tradition extending back to the pre-Homeric era. To hear this music is to hear the past. Lament from Epirus is an unforgettable journey into a musical obsession, which traces a unique genre back to the roots of song itself. As King hunts for two long-lost virtuosos―one of whom may have committed a murder―he also tells the story of the Roma people who pioneered Epirotic folk music and their descendants who continue the tradition today. King discovers clues to his most profound questions about the function of music in the history of humanity: What is the relationship between music and language? Why do we organize sound as music? Is music superfluous, a mere form of entertainment, or could it be a tool for survival? King’s journey becomes an investigation into song and dance’s role as a means of spiritual healing―and what that may reveal about music’s evolutionary origins.

The Papas and the Englishman: From Corfu to Zagoria

It was in 1991 that Roy and Effie Hounsell moved into their place in Zagoria. In 1980, having been made redundant, Roy and his wife left England to try their hand at establishing themselves in Corfu. They visited mountainous Zagori in Nortern Mainland Greece and were captivated by its magnificent, rugged beauty and its mouldering, unspoiled stone villages. All desire to move there was dashedby their poor ability to speak Greek. Eventually they bought a tumble-down property in Koukouli. They struggled with the rebuilding, helped by the village priest, Papa Kostas, created a garden out of the jungle and joined in with the villagers to become regarded as locals.

Let’s Cycle in Zagori!

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