Karpenisi is called the Greek Switzerland or the Greek Alpes, but any names that you may give to it, it doesn’t matter. What is matter is the mountains’ images, the sounds of the rivers, the peace of the forest, the unknown of the trails. The area around Karpenisi has many little villages that they waiting to be discovered!
The first thing that you see from Karpenisi is its panoramic view from the church of St. Dimitrios, just a few minutes outside the city. Karpenisi itself is famous for the local products (like cheese, sweets and jams, honey, sausages, chestnuts and beans). At a distance of 12 km from Karpenissi there is the ski resort Velouhi which is located at an altitude of 1,840 m. It has 10 tracks of different levels, chalet, restaurant, café-bar, ski rental shops.
But our focus should be the area around Karpenisi. From Karpenissi towards Prouso, where the famous monastery is located there, you will meet many villages, literally covered by forest and rivers. Koryschades is a very important historical village, where today you will find the Museum of National Resistance from the II World War. The whole village has only traditional stone buildings and houses, with respect to the local architecture. From here you continue on Voutiro. There, in the central square it’s the church of Agia Paraskevi, which is really impressive and it’s the largest in whole county!
The next stops are the Megalo and Mikro Chorio. The Palio Mikro Chorio has a picturesque square, a small tavern and many traditional buildings. This village was destroyed by landslides and abandoned by the inhabitants. At the entrance of this village a new small lake was created because of this landslide!
Megalo Chorio is more touristic with many settlements and local restaurants. The route ends in Monastery of Prouso but meanwhile you will pass from rivers, mountains, beautiful villages and even gorges! In Monastery Prouso it is kept the miraculous image of Our Lady Prousiotissa, dating to the 12th century!
The most famous gorge is the Pantavrechi(=Always rains). The name comes from the fact that in that area the water from mountain Kaliakouda meets the river Krikelioti, but it is so narrow that some of the water deviate and beautiful waterfalls are created which are very similar to rainfall!
Karpenisi and the whole area is a magical place, where you meet images coming directly from fairy tales and old stories! Rivers, lakes, wild mountains, gorges compose one of the most impressive landscape in Greece. Close your laptop, book some tickets (or the other way around!), take a deep breath and visit this special place!
If you need to know more about Karpenisi, simply ask us!