VITSA

Today, the villages of the Zagori are 46 in number, shared out among Central, Western and Eastern Zagori. Vitsa, a village of the Central Zagori, officially  designated as a ‘traditional’ settlement of particular historical, architectural and ecological interest, is one of the most typical villages of the Zagori, a region unique not only in Greece but also in Europe for its history and culture, and for its natural features.

It lies at a distance of 36 kilometres from the city of Ioannina, on the road network of the Central Zagori, on the borders of theVikos-Aoos National Park and at the beginning of the famous Vikos Gorge. It stands in the form of an amphitheatre in an area of peerless natural beauty and so it makes a profound impression and challenges the visitor, who was expected none of this, to explore the village’s kalderimia (its cobbled mule paths), and to listen attentively for its secrets..By means of the sensibility of an established artist in the field of photography, Dimitris Talianis, and with the aid of theAdministrative Committee of the Angeliki Papazoglou Bequest, the Vitsa,Zagori, Fraternity and the Vitsa Cultural Associationthis album of photographs has been published.

HISTORYThe first reference to the village of Vitsa occurs in the year 1319 in a Byzantine chrysobull of Andronicus Palaeologus the Elder, under the name of Veitsa. This is followed by a mention in a chrysobull of Symeon Uresis Palaeologus in 1361, in which the village is referred to by the name of Vezitsa, and is ceded together with other regions of Epirus by Prince Uresis to the Duke Orsini. In the narthex of the Monastery of St. Parasceve, in the village of Monodendri in Central Zagori, the patron’s inscription speaks of “all the heirs, proprietors and notables of Vezitsa in the Reign of our most eminent Despot Duke Carolos in the year 1412..”. In the Chronicle of Votsa, a historically valuable monastic ledger of the monastery of that name in the Zagori, it is stated that Veϊtsa, together with 14 villages in the Zagori, signed the ‘Voϊnikon’, the capitulation to the Sultan’s representative, Sinan Pasha, in 1430.The region had been inhabited since very ancient times. This fact is confirmed by Vitsa’s archaeological site, which is on the edge of the village. Here a settlement of the ninth century BC, unique in Epirus, with a wealth of archaeological finds, was discovered. The inhabitants of this ancient settlement belonged to the Macedonian tribe of the Molossoi, who, coming from the Elimeia region (in the middle of the course of the Haliacmon river), dominated central Epirus approximately two generations after the fall of Troy, setting up the Kingdom of the Molossoi,with the Ioannina basin as its political and religious centre and Passaron as its headquarters. Their main means of making a living was nomadic stockbreeding. The abundance of funerary offerings in the tombs of the eighth century BC and of Classical times, with the imported and expensive bronze vessels, testifies to considerable prosperity. The rareness of coins is striking. The finds from the excavations are kept and displayed in the Ioannina Archaeological Museum.Theanonymous townshipof the archaeologists may have disappeared in the late fourth century BC, but the history of Vitsa continues through a game of the corruption of its name: from the Veϊtsaof the last years of the Byzantine period to the chora of Vezitsawith its three distinct districts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A Byzantine parchment codex of the thirteenth century, which was dedicated in 1626 to Our Lady of Kato (Lower) Vitsa by Georgios Lekas, a native of Vitsa in foreign parts, as a nobleman with the position of Postelnik in the Danubian Provinces, contains the worlds: I HAVE DEDICATED IT TO THE PANAGHIA AT VEZITSA.A hostof written mementoes in ecclesiastical documents, in the faint tracings of inscriptions on wall-paintings, in dedications of devout servants of God on icons, in the official papers of the official papers of the commonwealth of the Zagorians in the years of Ottoman rule prompted distinguished philologists of Vitsa, in the nineteenth century, to speak of a ‘syncope’ of consonants and other tricks of a living Hellenic Doric language, by which, with the passage of time, the Vezeetzaand the Vezitza or Vezitsa, the Veϊtzaand Veϊtsa, the Vitzes, the Vitzaand Vitsaended up as Veetsa, Veitsa, and the Vitsaof modern times.Vitsa, divided into the districts, has occupied its present position since the fourteenth century. Around these districts, there were also three smaller ancient settlements at Aghios Ioannis (Kornisi), at Aghios Nikolaos (Livadakia), and Aghios Athanasios; these broke up and were merged with the threemachalades(districts). It was in the Middle Ages that the anarchy of late Byzantine times, robber incursions, an epidemic of the plague (in which, according to tradition “the demon takes hold at night and chokes its children and forces them to flee from Vouzisia”) concentrated the population of the village in three districts: the Ano (Upper) Machalas or Manadentri (the present-day Commune of Monodendri), the Mesios (Middle) Machalas (the present-day neighbourhood of Pano Vitsa), and the Kato (Lower) Machalas (the present-day neighbourhood of Kato Vitsa). The monks-ascetics of the Monastery of St Paraskeve in the Vikos Gorge and the Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos (subsequently the central parish church) at Kato Vitsa were the benefactors who gathered together persecuted inhabitants of other settlements in the medieval Zagori which had broken up, as well as refugees from other, more distant, places. Byzantine nobles and humble farmers came and struck their roots in this harsh spot.Until 1763, the three villages were one, with a common ‘elder’ and regular assemblies, following the shared institutions of the region and playing a part in the Commonwealth of the Zagorians, in conditions of self-administration known to all involved. Authoritative historians of Vitsa state that it was in the first decade of the 1800s that the division into the three separate communities occurred.The village’s inhabitants, like most of the Zagorians, began their travels at an early date, at the time of theVoϊniko treaty. Thus in 1430, young men from Veϊtsa were forced to leave the village and go as ‘Voϊnikides’ to Constantinople, a first contract with life in exile, which had so much to offer them, but also so much of which to deprive them. The famous nineteenth-century historian and physician-philosopher of the Zagori John Lambridis reports a tradition that the first Zagorian to settle abroad and to prosper, as a fur-merchant, after his term of service as a Voϊnikis in Constantinople, was from Vitsa – sometime in the middle of the fifteenth century.From the seventeenth century, large numbers of the men of Vitsa flourished in foreign parts: in Venice as printers and goldsmiths, in Odessa and Constantinople as merchants and doctors, in Wallachia as ‘masters of the post’ (postelniki) and senior officials (primikyrides), trusted secretaries of princes, tax-farmers, in Vienna, Belgrade, Bitolia, in all the great commercial centers of the Balkans and, later, in Cairo and Alexandria as financiers and merchants, as factory-owners, but also as bakers and clerks of every description.If we delve deeper into the history of the Zagori and Epirus, we shall discover the Vizier Aslan Pasha, who as a child was abducted from Mesios Machalas at little Vitsa in the last devshirme(tribute of Christian children) of the seventeenth century and rose to be Pasha of Ioannina and to found the Aslanidis dynasty, who ruled the vilayet. We could also mention Alexis Papazoglou, the Great Postelnik Lekas, and the members of the Bazakas, Brouzos, and Velloyannis families, who attainted high administrative office at the courts of the Balkan principalities and the Sublime Porte in Constantinople, while at the same time benefiting their place of origin in every possible way.From the early nineteenth century there were pupil-teacher schools in both Pano and Kato Vitsa. By the time the Second World War broke out, there were two primary schools, high-school, and a girls’ domestic science school. Gifts from natives of Vitsa in exile have shown their encouragement for learning by providing well-stocked communal libraries in the school buildings.A host of men of letters and writers have come from this small village and have distinguished themselves during the last two centuries. The well-known men of letters and writers and professors G. Hasiotis, M. Paranikas, G. Zikidis, D. Hasiotis, the priest-monk Dionysios (Paparousis), P. Paparousis, D. Sarros, K. Sfagos, G. Athanasiadis-Novas, G. Danos, I. Nikolaϊdis were born or had their origins in Vitsa.

BENEFACTORSAccording to the men of letters of the nineteenth century, its children in exile adorned Vitsa with significant benefactions. It is the only village with as many as 148 bequests, great and small, and donations in the Zagori. Space does not allow us to mention all the Vitsini who have benefited their birthplace with their bequests, but below are some of the more important benefactors of Vitsa and of the boarder region ofEpirus.-Angeliki Papazoglou, in her will in 1884, left to Vitsa her family mansion in Ioannina and shares in the National Bank. This bequest is still very much alive today, and, moreover, the last 15 years have seen a significant increase in the number of its shares and the Papazogleio building being put to good use. The Papazoglou bequest is the most important mechanism of the village’s development, since from its income an annual study grant is made to all students who come from Vitsa, girls are given financial support when they marry, those in need are assisted, and important public benefit projects are carried out. Recently, the setting up of the Natural History Museum at Pano Machalas in the village was embarked upon. It will bear the name of Angeliki Papazoglou.-Ioannis, son of Christophoros Veϊtzinos (or Tsiongoghias) left, in 1872, what was for the time a vast bequest, which, unfortunately, was never made use of, because this potential benefactordied in Odessa, and the Tsarist authorities, at the instigation of some of his heirs, prevented the execution of the will.-Philippos Vrizopoulosconstructed at his own expense, in 1927, the Vitsa Vrizopouleio School, the fine elementary school at Kato Vitsa.-The members of the Sarros family from the seventeenth century onwards were, in the high offices which they held, great benefactors of Hellenism, Epirus and the Zagori, and donated the old school at Kato Vitsa. One of the earliest Greek printing-houses in Venice belonged to them.-Distinguished members of the Misioglou, Karayannis, and Veloyannis families gave their birthplace itsGreek School and their own mansions, in one of which the Vitsa Natural History Museum will be housed.-Among Epirot benefactors of modern times, a native of Vitsa, Nicolaos Yannis, grandson of Manthos Velloyannis, stands out: “by an act of sublime generosity which cannot age, he left by his will in 1966, considerable landed property to the University of Ioannina”.

STRUCTURE OF THE SETTLEMENT – THE DWELLING-HOUSEThe settlement of Vitsa consists today of two ekistic units, two ‘machalades’, both of which stand on a steep slope. Between the two machalades a deep natural hollow, the Brinos, intervenes. The machalaswhich is situated in the northern part of the village is the Upper Machalas or Ano Vitsa,and that which is to the south is the LowerMachalas or Kato Vitsa is laid out in the shape of an amphitheatre on a steep slope facing south. Kato Vitsa stands in linear fashion on a gentle saddle of land which gradually develops into another steep slope. The four main kalderimia (cobbled mule paths) of the machalasconverge in the village square, the ‘Mesochori’. Between the two machalades there is a wooded hill on which the Churchof All Saints, its bell-tower, and the ‘kioski’ stand. The south-eastern edge of Kato Vitsa is the point from which the stone-paved footpath, the Skala of Vitsa, starts out for the double-arched Misios brodge, Voϊdomatis river and other settlements of the Zagori.The dwelling-house is the structural unit of the settlement. In addition, a prominent role is played in the constitution of the village by the public buildings: the churches, chapels, public water-sources and the schools. Of vital importance for the organization of the settlement is a network of roads and the flat open spaces which are a pole of community life.The structure of the house in the settlement of Vitsa is not significantly different from its structure in the other settlements of the Central Zagori. In consists of the main house, the ancillary buildings and the courtyard. The main house is usually on two levels. The ground floor (katoϊ) is taken up only with ancillary premises, while the main living-quarters of the family are on the first floor (anoϊ). The main house is entered either by means of an external staircase which leads from the courtyard to the first floor, or directly from the courtyard to the hayiati (covered portico) of the ground floor. Apart from the hayiati, the ground floor has storage spaces, cellars and accommodation for the animals (the ahouri).The predominant material in the construction of the houses, and of the other buildings, is stone. The stone which is used is the local white schist, of limestone origins. The bearing walls, the internal and external floors and the roof-covering are all of stone, as are various individual features of the buildings, but a significant role in the interior, and in the construction of the roof.The general boundaries of the settlement are rather unclear, since there is a free relationship of dialogue between the built and the natural environment. This free, but at the same time, strict relation is a determinant factor in the overall picture of the village. The natural environment and the settlement are interfused. This relationship alters during the course of the year. In the summer months, the verdure forces its way into the settlement on every side, while in winter the nakedness of the natural landscape assimilates the village.

THE DECORATIVE PAINTING OF THE ZAGORI – THE EXAMPLE OF VITSAIn Epirus, decorative painting is to be found almost exclusively in the villages of the Zagori. This fact constitutes a form of cultural particularity which is function of the economic and cultural superiority of the Zagori over the other areas of Epirus. The subjects which the local painters borrowed from the West usually have copper engravings as their models. In their hands, however, these decline into ‘vernacular’ works, because of a lack of training in art. Naturally, many traditional features survive in these decorations. In spite of the fact that up to the present no record has been made of the decorative wealth of the region in its entirety, it can be established that most of the houses with such decoration are concentrated in the villages of the Central Zagori. This is no accident: this ekistic unit emerged as the most important – in economic and cultural terms – in the whole of the Zagori. In Vitsa, six houses with painted decoration on their walls have been identified. The number was in former times greater, but damage of various kinds has reduced it to its present level. The decorations which have survived cover a range of from rococo to neo- Classicism.The Constantinos Kyratsis house (Skevi), in the Galina district in the Upper Machalas has one of the most accomplished painted decorations in the Zagori. On the wall of the ontas, above the built-in cupboard, the anonymous painter has noted the date: “1845 MARCH 25”. Rococo floral decoration was used to adorn the Anna Anagnostaki house. Rococo has also made its presence felt in the interior of the churches. In the Church of Our Lady at Kato Vitsa, the soffits of the windows have been decorated with rococo floral motifs, similar to those encountered on the walls of many mansions in the Zagori of the mid nineteenth century.The Hatzis house (today the Vasdekis guesthouse), according to the owner’s inscription on stone, was built in 1849. This painted decoration is also laid out in horizontal zones, but the manner in which the motifs are rendered already betrays some neo-Classical influences.In 1863, an area of the ground floor in the Panaghio Vasdeki housewas decorated in this way. The compositions include figures of soldiers, buildings, and trees.At Kato Vitsa, the Stratis Vatavalis housewas built in 1896. Running round the four walls below the ceiling is a decorative frieze with geometrical patterns of neo-Classical inspiration.  A very simple form of decoration, very probably dating from the first half of the nineteenth century, has been located in the Vangelitsa Kyratsi house. In a brief review of the decorative painting of Vitsa, it would be an omission not to mention the interior decoration of the katholikon (main church) of the Monastery of the Prophlet Elijah: on the interior of the drum of the dome, designs depicting churches have survived. In a probability these are stylized depictions of the monastery’s katholikon itself.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS OF VITSAThose who had been away on distant journeys would, on their return, lay out part of their gains on projects to promote piety and culture. Thus they adorned their native place with three fine churches, a fortress-monastery and 11 chapels great and small.THE MONASTERY OF THE PROPHET ELIJAHAround 1630, the inhabitants of the village of Veϊtza decided to build an imposing monastery on the spot where the old Chapel of the Transfiguration stood. The names of the contributors, both rich and poor, are many. In summer 1632, at the feast of the Prophet Elijah, the katholikon was consecrated, but it took 36 years for the fortress-monastery to be completed, with the cells and the reception rooms, the kitchens, and the two magnificent gatehouses – one looking in the direction of Vitsa and the other in that of Monodendri. The church is a single-aisled basilica with dome and narthex, of a rectangular shape, wile the conch of the sanctuary on the east is semi-hexagonal.On the completion of the building complex, in 1668, the monastery became an integral part of the life of the Zagori. Each year, on the eve of the feast day of the Prophet Elijah, at the vigil, men barefoot in fulfillment of a vow to the Prophet, finely dressed ladies and ordinary worshippers, came to venerate him and to ‘surround him with candles’. Donations of fields and estates throughout the Zagori and Epirusprovided financial support for the work of the monastery. Bishops and the simple faithful came to make-working Prophet Elijah. These monks made the monastery into a spiritual centre for the area, which attracted teachers of the nation such as Gennadios and Athanasios Stageiritis to come here to study. In 1814, Abbot Serapheim built the famous three-arched ‘Kalogeriko’ bridge between Baghia (Kipi) and Koukouli, so that the Zagorians could cross the foaming torrent without fear. The history of the monastery has gone hand-in-hand with that of the region. After the rebellion of Ali Pasha and the outbreak of the Greek Revolution in 1821, the Sultan’s troops and hordes of savage Albanians plagued the area. Two decades of anarchy and torment followed. However, the twentieth century found the Monastery of the Prophet Elijah flourishing, together with the two communities of Vitsa and Monodendri. The local people always hasten to the monastery to consult the Prophet Elijah at difficult moments of their lives. The monastery is the home of men of sanctity and of a small community which it has taken under its wing, and so serves to promote devotion and culture.The eve of the feast day of the Prophet Elijah is a unique event for the whole of the Central Zagori. A whole host of people from the surrounding villages floods into the monastery, filling the reception rooms and cells. The hospitality provided is particularly generous. On the feast day itself, after the service, the variety of sweetmeats and entertainments available ensures that this is a happy and memorable occasion for the children of the Zagori. The event is rendered colourful by adorned horses and mules and men and women in a variety of traditional costumes, while piers, roast meat and plenty of wine add to the spirit of the festivities.   THE CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS, ANO VITSAThe Church of St Nicholas stands on the north-western edge of Vitsa, on the road to Monodendri. It was the parish church of Ano Vitsa until 1885, when it was replaced in this role by the neighbouring Church of the Taxiarches (Archangels). It is a single-space rectangular building roofed over by a vault throughout its length, which is intersected by another at a higher level. In the upper part of the walls it is built with local dressed stones in regular courses, but at the bottom of the walls large irregular boulders have been used. The interior of the church is lit by six narrow apertures in the south side. It is entered today by the south doorway, which has a small oak door decorated with iron nails and straps.The church was built in 1612, a fact recorded by an inscription carved on a plaque set into the southern side of the transverse vault. The wall-paintings were executed six or seven years later, according to the patronal inscription on the lintel of the western entrance. Tilework decoration in a row of lozenges tops the three-sided sanctuary apse. On the eastern pediment there are two shallow blind arches, in which there was once some scene depicted. In the arch on the north a part of the figure of an old man with a nimbus has been preserved, in all probability St Nicholas, to whom the church is dedicated.The founding and painting of the church was made possible through the financial support of all the inhabitants of Vitsa, and local craftsmen were used. It is one of the oldest ecclesiastical monuments of the Zagori to have retained its painted decoration is reasonably good condition, an indication of its fine appearance when it was originally constructed.The painted decoration was produced “by the hand of Mikhail, painter, with his son Constantinos from the town of Lynotopi” and is one of the few examples of its kind of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century coming from the famous school of painters from Linotopi, Kastoria. The whole of the interior surface of the church is painted, on the Byzantine model.The sanctuary screen was made in 1618. It is of carved wood with relief representations of flowers and stylised heads. On it is a row of icons of the Twelve Apostles, the Saviour, the Theotokos and two angels in various styles (from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century). The two large icons in the bottom row are of the Theotokos and the Saviour (fine works in the Byzantine style of the seventeenth century). On the right of the sanctuary there was an icon of St Nicholas in the Russian style, but, unfortunately, it was recently stolen. THE CHURCH OF THE ‘PAMMEGISTON TAXIARCHON’The cruciform-roofed Church of the ‘Pammegiston Taxiarchon’ (the Great Archangels), once the cemetery chapel of Pano Vitsa, stands 20 metres to the north of the Church of St Nicholas. It was built in 1606, but in 1885 “it was enlarged and decorated anew”, as the patronal inscription at the main entrance states. It consists of the nave, the narthex, the women’s gallery, the hayiatia(portico – semi-open-air area) and, on the north, the Chapel of St George. The surviving interior painted decoration is the work of vernacular artists: “by the hand of Apostolos, Miltiadis and Sokratis from the Town of Chionades 1885”. The gilded upper part of the sanctuary screen is a type representative of such screens in Epirus in the mid seventeenth century. THE CHURCH OF THE DORMITION OF THE THEOTOKOSThe Church of Our Lady at Kato Vitsa is Vitsa’s oldest church. There is no evidence for when it was built, but we know that it was converted into a parish church in 1600-1625 and was completely renovated in the years 1720 and 1728. The carved wooden sanctuary screen with representations of animals and flowers was made “by the hand of Efstathios and Nikolaos, 1739”. The last renovation of the wall-paintings took place in 1885. The many interventions and restorations to the original fortress form of the monastery of the late Byzantine period have bequeathed to us a long complex o hayiatia-porticoes which extend in parallel with the enclosed narthex and the nave.

THE VIKOS GORGEAny attempt to give an account in a very few lines of a text of the natural beauty, the ecological value, and the cultural wealth of a region such as that of the northern Pindus is certainly a difficult and bold undertaking. In this part of the largest mountain range in mainland Greece, nature and man have engaged in a dialogue, have harmonized with one another and have complemented each other, thus creating a location of supreme importance at both a national and a European level. The Vikos Gorge is in the heart of the northern Pindus and is a representative example of the wealth and uniqueness of that region. It is a place of rare beauty and vast ecological interest which forms an important cultural and historical heritage.Starting out from the region of the village of Tsepelovo, the gorge cuts through the mountain mass of Tymphe and ends at the source of the Voϊdomatis river. The main ravine, (which has been included in theGuinness Book of Records) of a length of some ten kilometers and a depth which reaches 800 metres, begins at Monodendri and Vitsa and extends to the village of Vikos. With its wild and imposing beauty, its rich flora, vegetation and fauna, with torrents gushing from its sheer sides, with caves and inaccessible saddles, the fauna of which has not yet been fully studied, the Vikos Gorge represents the nucleus of theVikos-Aoos National Park.The flora of the region, abundant in its variety, includes rare and indigenous species and is of outstanding botanical value. The pharmaceutical species of the region are directly bound up with its folklore and the empirical medicine of the past. In the period of Ottoman rule, the famous Vikos doctors treated all illnesses with the herbs which they gathered from the gorge.Of particular importance is the vegetation of the region, as it has types of biotopes representative of azonal, riparian vegetation, and the sub-Mediterranean, the cooler Mediterranean, the sub-continental and the continental zone. Alders, plane-trees, and willows, evergreen broad-leafed plants such as the Quercus ilex, the Phillyron intifolia, arbutus, ash, elms, carobs, and holly oaks, as well as various species of deciduous oaks, beeches, maples, and many others grow in the region, thus contributing decisively to the creation of a place which is not only of outstanding beauty, but also of great ecological significance.The Vikos Gorge is an important biotope for the fauna of the region. Rare mammals, such as the wild goat, the roe-deer, the wild cat, the otter, and the weasel are to be found here, while there is a rich variety of bird life, with many birds of prey (the golden eagle, the lammergeier, the Neuphron perenopterus – called ‘koukalogos’ in the Zagori – the royal eagle, the Accipiter gentilis, the ‘pontikovarvakina’ hawk, etc) and certain very rare birds, such as the Pyrrhocorax graculus, the Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax and theCinclus cinclus – an indication of the cleanness of the water. There are also some rare species of reptiles, such as the Pindus lizard, the Podacris orchadri, the Podacris muralis, the ‘alogophido’ snake, the ‘asinophido’ snake (Coronella austriaca), the viper, the ‘sapitis’ snake.This imposing and rare monument of nature is complemented and enhanced in a unique way by striking geological formations, the cultural wealth and the history of the broader region. Vikos gorge is an authentic reflection of the historic length of the Balkan peninsula, the historic depth of the Mediterranean region, and the historic weight of the European continent.From Zagori to Mostar the same magnificent stone bridges link the Balkan peninsula prolonging its historic unity. The stone Misios bridge between Vitsa and Koukouli is both an integral part of the Vikos landscape and a inevitable symbolic metaphor for the unity of the peoples and the cultures which have set their seal on the history of the Balkans.The renowned French historian Fernand Braudel maintains that the mountains, more than any other part of the Mediterranean, preserve the most authentic characteristics of the traditions and the history of our cultures. Vikos gorge, together with Vitsa and the other villages of Zagori are one such outstanding haven for the conversation of the historical and cultural heritage of the Mediterranean region.The paradox of the mercurial peace which is found at the heart of Europe’s deepest gorge finally also prompts a flight of fancy placing Vikos gorge at the historical centre of gravity of the European continent and of world civilisation. This is simply because Vikos, like all mountains with their gorges, ravines, slopes and summits, constitutes perhaps the soul of mankind.

Vitsa website: www.vitsa.gr 

ALEXANDROS YANNIS