Wednesday 22nd May 2024 – Kastoria, Greece

 

We wanted to see a couple more places around the lakes before we left. Crossing the strip of land between the lakes we were treated to a fly-past by a group of pelicans and then we drove up into the village of Agios Germanos. Here we visited the 11^th century church of Agios Germanos with its interior covered in 18^th century murals. The congregation outgrew the church so that tacked a new church onto the old one leaving the old church intact. A very helpful policeman from the police station opposite the church, told us about a watermill 500 metres away that happened to be open on Wednesdays so we wandered along the track to find it. Men were reconstructing the original guesthouse of the 1920’s mill. The journey to bring grain to the mill by donkey, followed by the time to mill the grain, meant that the customers had to stay overnight, hence the guesthouse. One of the workers came over and greeted us. He explained that the guardian had to travel to Thessaloniki today so he was deputising. He was actually a tour guide, spoke excellent English and was very knowledgeable. He told us all about how the mill worked producing flour, washing clothes, carpets etc. and fulling cloth – three different processes in one building with the water able to power all three at the same time. He explained that the local geology of limestone combined with granite meant that the springs flowed all year, providing power to 13 mills on the river. He also told us that millers had been often thought of as sorcerers as they were independent, lived away from the villages and transformed things using water power in a way that people could not understand. Also, because they had more contact with the outside world, they adopted new thinking and came up with new ideas. He also told us that he owned a restaurant in Mikrolimni on Mikro Prespa Lake, which was originally owned by his wife’s grandfather but was derelict and they had restored it. He and his wife had decided to take a rest from the restaurant and do other things for six months, hence he was restoring the mill. Mikrolimni was our next stop and we saw his fish restaurant, which is in a great position on the edge of the lake.
We drove on to Kastoria where we wanted to visit the archaeological site of the Dispilio Lake Village. I was particularly interested in the site because of the lake villages close to us on the Somerset Levels. The lake village at Dispilio was occupied for a long period between 5,500 BC and 3,000 BC and is thought to have had some 3,000 inhabitants. The village was partly on land and partly built on stilts over the lake. The archaeologists have reconstructed some of the buildings in this manner and it made for a very interesting visit. Inside the buildings were examples of everyday life in prehistoric times – pottery, tools, fishing equipment, hearths etc. I volunteer at the Avalon Archaeology site in Somerset where we have built a number of reconstructions, including a roundhouse from the Glastonbury Lake Village. At Dispilio they found a wooden tablet covered in symbols which may be the earliest script ever found – worth a Google.
There are no campsites in the area but on park4night we found a farm site ‘CountryHouse 2 Rivers’ listed. We followed the satnav coordinates but we couldn’t find it. After searching the area for some time, we finally gave up and found another listing from park4night on a piece of waste land by a river. Not what we wanted but it was quiet.
Photos: The churches of Agios Germanos; One of the wall paintings of the older church; The Agios Germanos mill; The mill leat feeds three pipes leading down into the mill providing the power; Our guide demonstrates how the flour mill works; Mikrolimni and our guide’s restaurant; Dispilio Lake Village looking from the land towards the lake; These houses are built on stilts over the lake.