Smokestack-1 Photo

Photographer’s Note

Architecture
The houses of Zagori were very far from being the cottages and hovels which one might expect. They were urban in design, large and with a number of storeys, strongly built and fully deserving the name of mansion. Stone, of course, was the basic material used, not only for the walls, but for the roofs as well. Wood took second place.
The builders were from other parts of Epirus, chiefly from the villages of Konitsa and the Tzoumerka mountains, where the masons were wise in the craft of building and designing houses to meet the requirements of a harsh climate. As for the wooden parts of the house, oak was the only material which the builders would deign to use.
From the outside, the houses are austere and even stark, and it takes practice to see that the masons were not entirely insensible to decoration. Inside, however, they were abundantly adorned, with carved ceilings and wall-paintings being the dominant mode. The parlour or «sala» would be painted from top to bottom like a church. Here, too, the artists were from outside the Zagori, the best-known being those from the village Chioniades.
These stone-built villages, clinging to the stony hillsides, are often difficult to pick out until one is dimost upon them. Each of them had two main social centers: the square with its plane tree and the stone-built church. Most of the churches were rectangular basilicas, like houses, with domes being used sparingly. There would, of course be a belfry and also a wide, deep verandah (the outside of the church was a meeting-place, too) and these are perhaps the most striking features of the churches of Zagori
Apart from the villages, the wealthy Zagori villagers endowed their region with a network of roads, which was of amazing complexity and refinement for its time. Paved roads and paths crisscrossed Zagori in all directions, uniting the villages and refusing to be put off by any natural impediment. Flights of steps were built up steep mountainsides and bridges were built over the rivers —bridges which, with their soaring arches, are still among the glories of Zagori and even strike an optimistic note: perhaps, in the end, man has got something to offer the environment.

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