31/01/2008
THE VILLAGES OF PERISTERI
Alpine pasture land, rocks, landslides, snow, remote landscapes struggle to maintain a few plants with fruit bearing trees and walnut trees with excellently built terraces for farming, while at the foot of this rock mountain which is covered in snow more than six months a year and is named Peristeri (the ancient name is Lakmos), the Arahthos river, and its branches flow, sometimes with rage, sometimes calmly among the plane trees, willow trees, alders and high elm trees and poplar-trees. Plentiful water descends on all sides, powering water mills, workshops with water wheels for the cleaning of carpets and heavy wool clothing, and bridged by well built bridges. Stone built communities that resist modernisation, for example the sorely tried Krapsi, a victim of earthquakes and landslides in the 1960s. You will find here monuments of Christian architecture and painting, designated listed buildings. You wonder how the people climbed up here, writes the poet Aragis and explains in the old days when the [land was in] was slavery
One wonders about the wonder of people surviving in such difficult conditions. People who know how to have a good time, famous for their local fetes, and food - the famous potatoes of Hrysovitsa.
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