Mainland Greece Tour

Mainland Greece tour trips stay on the continental body of the country, with a host leading the way. They run from the Peloponnese north through Central Greece, Thessaly and Epirus to Macedonia. Their ground holds the Heptapyrgion fortress, the Castle of Arta and the yarn cooperative of Ampelakia. Ancient Aiani and Cassope, the Larissa theatre, Elassona and the Vlach village of Nymfaio belong to it too. Related trips are the classical Greece tour, the Athens Delphi Meteora tour and the Peloponnese road trip. Further trips sit among the Greece tours.

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What is a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour is travel on the Greek mainland in the company of a host. Mainland means the chief part of a country or a continent, leaving out the islands around it. Continents are the huge blocks of dry land on the planet.

Mainland Greece lies in the Balkans, a geographical area of southeastern Europe. Under the widely used definitions, the Balkans take in mainland Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia. A mainland Greece tour is therefore a trip through part of the Balkans. Southeastern means lying towards the south and the east.

In 1808, the German geographer August Zeune created the idea of a Balkan Peninsula. A geographer is a scholar of the surface of the Earth and its regions. Zeune wrongly took the Balkan Mountains to be the leading mountain system of southeastern Europe. Peninsula is the word for land that water bounds on three sides.

On a mainland Greece tour map, Macedonia is the largest geographic region of Greece. It also ranks second among the regions of the country by population. Macedonia is highly mountainous. Its major urban centres, such as Thessaloniki and Katerini, are grouped along the southern coastline of the region.

• Name: The Balkans are named after the Balkan Mountains, which run through the whole of Bulgaria.
• Seas: The Ionian Sea washes the south-west side of the Balkan Peninsula, and the Aegean Sea its south.
• Visitors: Of all the non-island destinations in Greece, Central Macedonia is the favourite of visitors.

Thessaloniki, the metropolis of Macedonia, ranks as the second-largest Greek city. It is also a major economic, cultural and commercial centre of the country. A metropolis is a large and important city. For a mainland Greece tour, Thessaloniki is the chief city of Macedonia.

Which fortress does the Heptapyrgion add to a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in Macedonia shares Thessaloniki with the Heptapyrgion, a fortress of Byzantine and Ottoman times. Its walls hold the north-eastern corner of the city’s acropolis, the walled high town. The word Byzantine names the Greek-speaking eastern Roman state.

In both Greek and Turkish, the name translates as Fortress of Seven Towers, though ten towers stand. Scholars think the name copies the Yedikule Fortress in Constantinople, the modern Istanbul. The five northern towers and their linking wall are thought to come from late Antiquity. That term names the last phase of the ancient era.

For a mainland Greece tour, the five southern towers and their wall form the later half. Experts place them in the 12th century, though not with certainty. Together the two halves made a walled redoubt within the citadel. A redoubt is an inner stronghold kept for a last defence.

The fort has a later chapter for a mainland Greece tour: it became a prison, open until 1989. A prison holds people sentenced by the courts. Its walls changed little, though their role was reversed. Built to keep danger out, they then kept the inmates, the people held inside, shut in.

• Garrison: A 1591 account places the military governor and a garrison of 300 in the fort.
• Restoration: Systematic study and repair of the fortress by archaeologists started in 1990.
• Basilica: Excavations at the fort uncovered an early Christian basilica, a church shaped like a long hall.

For a mainland Greece tour, a 1733 arms list gives Turkish names for the ten towers. They include the Lamp Tower, the Water Tower and the Maiden Tower. An arms list is a written count of the weapons and military stores in a fort.

How does the Castle of Arta fit into a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in western Greece shares its setting with the Castle of Arta. This medieval fortification stands in the city of Arta. Medieval points to the thousand-odd years after antiquity, known as the Middle Ages. A fortification is a place made strong with walls.

The castle rises at a bend of the Arachthos River, on the city’s north-eastern fringe. Old ashlars in its eastern wall show that it rose on the lower town of ancient Ambracia. That town had stood empty since nearby Nicopolis was founded in 31 BC. An ashlar is a square-cut block of stone.

Historians credit the castle to the Despotate of Epirus, under its rulers of the early 13th century. Arta was the capital of that state. In a despotate, power lay with a despot, a high title at the Byzantine court. For a mainland Greece tour, the walls belong mostly to Ottoman times in their present form.

The Ottoman Empire took Arta in 1449 and held it until 1717. The only break came with a Venetian occupation in the Morean War. Venetian refers to the Republic of Venice. A mainland Greece tour in Arta is set in a city annexed by Greece in 1881. Annexed means formally joined to a state.

• Size: The walls trace an irregular outline roughly 280 metres in length and no more than 175 metres across.
• Thickness: On average, the walls of the castle measure 2.5 metres from face to face.
• Palace: Byzantine remains of a church and building are read as the Despots’ palace and its church.

For a mainland Greece tour, Arta first enters the written record during a Norman siege in 1082. By that time, the site was already fortified to a degree. During a siege, soldiers ring a town and block its supplies.

Which cooperative story does Ampelakia bring to a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in Thessaly is set in the region of Ampelakia. This former municipality lies in the Larissa regional unit, one of the districts that divide Greek regions. A municipality is a town or area with its own council.

For a mainland Greece tour, the age of Ampelakia goes back to at least the 14th century AD. That places it in the last Byzantine era of Thessaly. Its name is best explained by the vineyards that once covered the village and its surroundings. Ambelia is the Greek word for vineyards.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a cooperative of merchants, craftsmen, farmers and workers flourished here. In a cooperative, the members own the business and share in running it. People of Ampelakia spun the cotton and dyed it scarlet red with rizari. Rizari is a red dye made from the root of a plant.

In 1778, the leaders of the village companies combined them into a single body. For a mainland Greece tour, its full name was the Common Company and Brotherhood of Ampelakia. A brotherhood is a group of people bound by shared aims. A company, in this sense, was a trading firm with partners and workers.

• Members: In 1780, the cooperative of Ampelakia had a membership of 6,000 people.
• Agencies: The central trading agency of the cooperative sat in Vienna, with branches as far as London.
• Cotton: The Tempe valley, where cotton was grown in large amounts, supplied the main share of raw fibre.

The cooperative did not last, and it dissolved in 1812. To dissolve, for a business, means to break up and close for good. In a mainland Greece tour of Thessaly, the yarn story of Ampelakia is part of the regional past.

What makes Aiani part of a mainland Greece tour of Macedonia?

A mainland Greece tour of Macedonia counts Aiani among the old towns of the Kozani regional unit. It stands by the Haliacmon river, 22 km to the south of Kozani city. Regional units are the districts that make up each Greek region.

In antiquity, Aiani was part of the kingdom of Elimiotis. Together with Orestis, Lynkestis, Eordaia and other Greek kingdoms, Elimiotis formed Upper Macedonia. That land lies on the Greek mainland, the setting of a mainland Greece tour. Excavation finds confirm that Aiani served as the capital of this kingdom from a very early date.

In prehistoric times, Aiani was a notable centre of dark-coloured pottery. Prehistoric means from the ages before written records. Names such as Dolio and Themidos appear on Archaic pots from Aiani. They prove that people there spoke and wrote Greek before the 5th century BC. In Greek history, the Archaic age was the stage just before the Classical.

For a mainland Greece tour, the ancient city of Aiani lies on a hill named Megali Rahi. It spread over the overlapping plateaus of that hill. A plateau is a flat stretch of raised ground, like a step on a hillside. Megali Rahi means great ridge in the Greek language.

• Water: A huge round tank cut into the rock gathered rainwater for the water supply of the city.
• Workshops: The city ran its own workshops for metalwork, clay figurines and pottery.
• Royal link: Phila, sister of King Derdas III of Elimia, became the first of Philip II’s seven wives.

For a mainland Greece tour, the name Aiani comes from Aianus, a figure of Greek myth. Myths are old tales of gods, heroes and the far past, passed down by tradition. In Ancient Greek, his name was spelled as Aianos.

Which planned city does Cassope offer a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour of Epirus is set in the home region of Cassope, an ancient Greek city. Its ruins sit on a remote, high platform. From there, the site looks out over the sea, the Ambracian Gulf and fertile land to the south.

Cassope arose in the mid-4th century BC, founded to serve as the chief city of the Kassopaeans. They were a branch of the Thesprotians, a people of ancient Epirus. Such a chief city is called a capital. A branch of a people, in this sense, is a smaller tribe within a larger one.

Cassope counts among the best surviving examples in Greece of a city on a Hippodamian grid. Such a plan lays out straight streets that meet at right angles. For a mainland Greece tour, the peak of Cassope came in the 3rd century BC. Large public buildings rose in that age.

Cassope also struck its own coins. To strike coins means to stamp metal into money. Roman forces badly damaged the city in 168-167 BC. In 31 BC, its remaining people moved to Nicopolis, the new capital of the region. A mainland Greece tour of Epirus unfolds in the region of both cities.

• First account: William Martin Leake visited the ruins and wrote a description of them in the early 19th century.
• Digs: A Greek team under Sotiris Dakaris carried out large excavations in 1952 and 1955.
• Remains: Cyclopean walls of huge stones, a theatre, an agora or market square, civic buildings and homes survive.

Long before Cassope itself, people settled on the site in the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age. In that era, tools were made from chipped stone. A mainland Greece tour in Epirus takes place in a region with human traces from that age.

Why does the First Ancient Theatre of Larissa matter to a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in Thessaly takes place in the region of Larissa and its ancient theatre. The First Ancient Theatre of Larissa is the largest theatre in Thessaly, with seats for 10,000 people. It stands on the south side of Frourio Hill.

For a mainland Greece tour, the theatre dates from the reign of King Philip V of Macedon. It rose in the centre of the ancient city late in the 3rd century BC. It stayed in use for six centuries. Then, late in the 3rd century AD or early in the 4th, it closed abruptly.

Besides plays, the theatre had a political role in its first centuries. On a mainland Greece tour, this is where the Koinon of Thessaly once met. That body was the highest authority of the region. A koinon was a league of ancient Greek cities with a shared council.

Its plan is the Hellenistic type, from the Greek age that followed Alexander, with three basic parts. The koilon is the curved bank of seats, and the orchestra is the round floor below. The skene is the stage building behind it. Here the koilon was cut from the slope of Frourio Hill, shaped into terraces for the seats.

• Worship: At first, the theatre was tied to the cult of Dionysus, the god of wine and drama.
• Altar: A small votive altar to Dionysus, an offering made after a vow, lay near the theatre.
• Emperors: Inscriptions honouring the emperors Augustus and Tiberius were found on the edges of the stage.

The seats also carry the names of city representatives who took part in the Federation of Thessaly. In a federation, member states join under one shared government. A mainland Greece tour in Larissa takes place in the city of those inscribed seats.

What does the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki hold for a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in Thessaloniki unfolds in a city with its own Archaeological Museum. Its finds span the Prehistoric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic ages and Roman times. The bulk of them were found in the city itself and across Macedonia.

The building was designed by the architect Patroklos Karantinos. It is an example of modern Greek architecture. An architect draws up the plans for a building. Built in 1962, it gained a new wing in 1980. A wing is an extra section joined to the side of a main building.

For a mainland Greece tour, the new wing holds an exhibition called The Gold of Macedon. Its finds come from cemeteries such as Sindos, Agia Paraskevi, Derveni and Evropos. With gold as its central theme, it traces Macedonian culture between the 6th century BC and 148 BC. A cemetery is a burial ground.

A second show, Thessaloniki in Prehistory, pictures the Thermaic Gulf shore before the city was built. Prehistory means the ages that came before writing. The show presents the first excavations. British and French troops carried them out during the First World War. On a mainland Greece tour, the Thermaic Gulf is the sea inlet beside Thessaloniki.

• Temple: The central rooms show parts of a temple from the 6th century BC and sculptures from Macedonia.
• Tomb front: A rebuilt facade of the Macedonian tomb at Agia Paraskevi uses its genuine stone parts.
• Sindos find: From the Sindos cemetery come a bronze helmet and gold mask of the late 6th century BC.

Before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the museum went through major renovation in 2001 and 2004. Its permanent displays were also rearranged at that time. A mainland Greece tour in Thessaloniki takes place in the city of this renewed museum.

Where do Elassona and its monastery sit in a mainland Greece tour of Thessaly?

A mainland Greece tour in Thessaly unfolds in the land of Elassona. Elassona lies at the base of Mount Olympus, in the Larissa regional unit. Its site on the passes from the Thessalian plain to Macedonia made it strategic. A pass is a way through mountains.

In antiquity the town was called Oloosson, and it belonged to the Perrhaebi tribe. Tribes are groups of families bound by common descent. Oloosson appears in the Catalogue of Ships, the roll of Greek forces in the Iliad of Homer. It sent armed men to help the Greek side in the Trojan War.

In a mainland Greece tour of Thessaly, the medieval citadel of Elassona holds the Panagia Olympiotissa Monastery. Greeks call the Virgin Mary Panagia, which means All-Holy. The monastery was founded between 1295 and 1304. Its 14th-century frescoes count among the finest Palaiologan-era paintings. A fresco is painted onto wet plaster. Palaiologan means of the last Byzantine dynasty.

For a mainland Greece tour, Elassona has a late date of union with Greece. Unlike the rest of Thessaly, which joined Greece in 1881, it stayed in the Ottoman Empire until 1912. It became Greek after the Balkan Wars, together with Crete, Macedonia and Epirus. The Balkan Wars were fought between Balkan states and the Ottoman Empire.

• Rivers: The Elassonitis and the Titarisio flow through the town into the Pineios, the longest river of Thessaly.
• Bridges: Four bridges join the two halves of the town, and one is an ancient stone arch bridge.
• Cave: Life in Melissotrypa Cave near Kefalovryso runs on chemosynthesis, energy taken from chemicals instead of sunlight.

One fresco in the monastery is a likeness of Andronikos II Palaiologos, the Byzantine emperor. He reigned as emperor from 1282 to 1328. On a mainland Greece tour, the name Olympiotissa means of Olympus, the mountain above the town.

Which Vlach village story does Nymfaio give a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in Western Macedonia shares the Florina regional unit with Nymfaio, a mountain village. It sits at 1,350 metres in the thickly wooded Verno mountains. Verno is the name of the mountain range around the village.

Vlach travellers settled the village, then called Neveska, around 1385. They had escaped to the high ground after hard fighting with the Ottomans. Vlachs are a Balkan people who speak a language close to Romanian. The fighters of Neveska gave in on terms. They kept their arms and self-rule and paid lower taxes.

For a mainland Greece tour, the first mention of the village comes in an Ottoman defter of 1481. A defter was an Ottoman tax register. At that time, Neveska had only six households. A household is a family living under one roof. Ottoman is the name of the Turkish empire then in power there.

Around 1630, Nymfaio became a centre of silversmithing. Silversmithing means working silver. For three centuries after that, its fame ran across Macedonia, the northern land of a mainland Greece tour. A Museum of Gold and Silver-smithery, Folklore and History opened in the village in 2000. Folklore covers the old customs, tales and skills of ordinary people.

• Protection: To keep its old buildings whole, the village is under the protection of the Greek Ministry of Culture.
• Population: In 2021, just 63 residents were counted as living in the village.
• Bears: A protection centre near the village houses 13 bears and wolves judged too weak for the wild.

A centre for brown bears and wolves stands one and a half kilometres outside the village. Its task is to protect these two wild animals. Nymfaio stands on the Greek mainland, home ground of a mainland Greece tour.

What does Megara add to a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in West Attica ties into Megara, a historic town and municipality. It lies on the northern side of the Isthmus of Corinth. Isthmus is the term for a thin land bridge between two bigger landmasses.

For mainland Greece tour travellers, ancient Megara had two harbours. Pagae looked west over the Corinthian Gulf. Nisaea faced east onto the Saronic Gulf, which opens into the Aegean Sea. Gulf here means a wide stretch of sea pushing far inland. Each harbour gave ships calm, protected water for loading cargo.

Settlers from Megara set up Megara Hyblaea, a small city north of Syracuse in Sicily. Colonies were new towns that citizens of a parent city planted overseas. Greeks called the parent city a metropolis, meaning mother city. Megara later founded Chalcedon in 685 BC. Byzantium followed around 667 BC.

Byzas, the legendary founder of Byzantium, is called the best-known citizen of ancient Megara. A legendary figure is known mainly from old stories rather than records. For a mainland Greece tour, Megara also claims the poet Theognis as a native. He wrote verse in the 6th century BC. Verse is writing set in lines with a steady beat.

• Two hills: Megara grew up on two acropolises, Karia and Alkathos; an acropolis is a fortified hilltop.
• Persian wars: Megarian troops fought beside Sparta and Athens at the battles of Salamis and Plataea.
• Painted village: The painter Théodore Jacques Ralli made scenes of Megara village from 1873 to 1909.

On a mainland Greece tour, Salamis also has a Megarian past. The island lies opposite the town. In archaic times it was part of Megara, until Athens took it over. The archaic age is the era of early city-states that preceded the classical period.

How do the walls of Aigosthena fit a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour near the Gulf of Corinth links to Aigosthena. It was an ancient fortified port city of Megaris, the old territory of the city of Megara. Its citadel, or hilltop fortress, keeps a group of the tallest towers left from ancient Greece.

For mainland Greece tour travellers, Aigosthena sits on the Alkyonides Gulf. This bay is an inlet of the larger Gulf of Corinth. Inlet means a slim tongue of seawater running into the shore. Wooded mountains close around the site on both sides. Mount Cithaeron rises to the north, and Mount Pateras to the south.

Its acropolis, a fortified hilltop, rises on a low hill 450 metres from the shore. Eight artillery towers were built into the wall around this citadel. An artillery tower held machines that hurled heavy missiles at attackers. A northern wall ran 370 metres down to the sea. It is well preserved.

For mainland Greece tour travellers, the walls of Aigosthena rank among the best preserved of the Hellenistic period. Historians date that era from Alexander the Great’s death onwards. The builders used more than one masonry style, possibly a sign of separate building phases. Masonry is building work in cut or shaped stone blocks.

• Shrines: Inscriptions found on the site show that shrines to Melampos and Heracles, two figures of myth, existed.
• Free city: An inscription from around AD 420 still listed Aigosthena as a free city.
• Basilica: A five-aisled Christian basilica, a long hall church, rose in the lower fortified area.

Below the ancient walls lies the village of Aigosthena, also called Porto Germeno. Its permanent population stood at 80 people in the 2011 census. On a mainland Greece tour, Porto Germeno is known as a beach resort with a small port.

Which story does Atalanti give a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in Phthiotis has a link to Atalanti, the second largest town of the area. Phthiotis counts as a regional unit, meaning a local government district, in central Greece. The town takes its name from Atalanta, a figure from Greek mythology.

Mountains frame Atalanti on three sides. Mount Knimida rises to the north and Mount Chlomo to the south. Mount Parnassus stands to the west. The northern Euboean Gulf opens to the east. For mainland Greece tour travellers, the local soil holds high levels of magnesium and iron. Magnesium and iron are both metals.

For mainland Greece tour travellers, Atalanti is known as a market town, one with a regular trading market. It was once the capital of the former province of Locris. A province here meant a larger district of the Greek state. Its geography has earned the town a name across Greece for wine-making.

In myth, the Locrians of Opus joined the Trojan War with four thousand warriors and 40 battle ships. Opus was the old capital of the Locris area. The Trojan War was the legendary siege of Troy. Their leader was Ajax the Lesser, son of Oileus. Ajax fought well at Troy but died in a storm on the voyage home.

• Patroclus: Patroclus, the best friend of Achilles, came from Opus, according to Greek myth.
• First town: The first town of the New Stone Age, or Neolithic, grew in the valley of Skala Atalanti.
• Island fort: In 431 BC Athens fortified the island of Atalanti to stop raids by Locrian pirates.

For a mainland Greece tour, the island off Atalanti is also called Atalantonisi or Talantonisi. In 426 BC an earthquake brought down part of the walls and the fort there. Such a quake is a violent jolt of the earth’s crust.

Where does Karpenisi lie for a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in the central mountains connects with Karpenisi, the capital of Evrytania. Evrytania forms a regional unit, which is a council area of modern Greece. The town lies among the southern ranges of the Pindus Mountains.

For mainland Greece tour travellers, Karpenisi sits in the valley of the river Karpenisiotis. It flows on into the Megdovas as a tributary. Tributary is the name for a stream that feeds a bigger river. Mount Tymfristos rises north of the town to 2,315 metres. To the south lie the foothills of Mount Kaliakouda.

The name Karpenisi comes from kárpinu, an Aromanian word for the hornbeam tree. Aromanian is a speech descended from Latin and heard in pockets of the Balkans. The Greek spelling makes the end of the name look like nisi, the Greek word for island. Linguists call this folk etymology, when speakers reshape a word to fit a familiar one.

For mainland Greece tour travellers, Oechalia is the name Karpenisi bore in antiquity, the ancient past. It was ruled by king Evrytos, the inventor of the bow. The town’s mountain setting gave it strategic value in the Greek Revolution of 1821. Strategic here describes ground that commanders prize for moving and holding troops.

• Tax record: An Ottoman tax ledger, or account book, of 1454 to 1455 holds the first mention of the name.
• Battle: The Greek War of Independence brought the Battle of Karpenisi on 8 August 1823.
• Olympian: Ioannis Theodoropoulos of Karpenisi took bronze in pole vaulting at the 1896 Olympics.

For a mainland Greece tour, Karpenisi has its own ski resort and a name as a winter destination. Such a resort keeps groomed runs and lifts for skiers. During the Second World War, the region became the place where armed National Resistance began.

Why do the marshes of Oeniadae matter to a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in western Greece looks back to Oeniadae, a town of ancient Acarnania. It stood on the west bank of the Achelous River, about 16 kilometres from the mouth. The site lies near the modern settlement of Trikardo.

Acarnania was the old name of a district in western Greece. Oeniadae was a leading town there, strong by nature and by human work. Marshes ringed the town, and the largest were wide and deep. Marsh describes soggy lowland, thick with reeds and standing water. In winter these marshes kept invading armies well away.

The land of Oeniadae spread along both banks of the Achelous. This district, called Paracheloitis, was very fertile. Fertile ground is soil that feeds strong crops. For a mainland Greece tour, the town’s name has a mythic source. It seems to come from Oeneus, the great hero of Aetolia in Greek myth.

In mainland Greece tour history, Oeniadae first appears in records around 455 BCE. The abbreviation BCE means Before Common Era, matching the older label BC. Pericles besieged Oeniadae in 454 BCE, but the town held out. Besieging meant ringing the walls with troops and blocking supplies until surrender.

• Sparta’s side: In the Peloponnesian War, only Oeniadae and Astacus in Acarnania sided with Sparta.
• Athenian ally: In 424 BCE, Demosthenes and the other Acarnanians forced the town into alliance with Athens.
• Macedonian rule: Philip V, king of Macedonia, captured Oeniadae from the Aetolians in 219 BCE.

For a mainland Greece tour, Philip V also began walls linking the harbour and arsenal to the citadel. Arsenal here means a yard for storing arms and naval equipment. In 189 BCE, a peace between Rome and the Aetolians returned the town to the Acarnanians.

What past does Aigio bring to a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour along the Gulf of Corinth brings in Aigio, a port town on that coast. It ranks second in size among the cities of Achaea, after Patras. Achaea forms one regional unit of the Peloponnese.

Before the city existed, the area held a Neolithic settlement. Neolithic labels the farming phase at the end of the Stone Age. The city of Aigion was founded in Homeric times, the age told in Homer’s poems. From around 800 BC, it belonged to the first Achaean League. That league joined member cities into one alliance.

In 373 BC an earthquake and a tsunami destroyed Helike, and Aigion took its land. Tsunami is a Japanese word for a giant wave pushed up by a seabed quake. On a mainland Greece tour, Aigion is also known for the temple of Zeus Homarios. With that temple, the city became the meeting place of the Achaean assembly.

Aigion stayed the Achaean capital until Rome conquered the region in 146 BC. Sources place its renaming as Vostitsa between the 9th and 13th centuries. The Greek scholar Dionysios Zakythinos read Vostitsa as meaning a fruit-bearing place. For a mainland Greece tour, Vostitsa gave way to the ancient name after Greek independence.

• Olympic winners: Ancient Aigion had Olympic winners, among them Ladas in the stadion, a short foot race.
• Medieval record: A 14th-century text, the Chronicle of the Morea, is the first to name it Vostitsa.
• Freedom date: On 26 March 1821, Greek rebels captured the city, which was among the earliest towns liberated.

For a mainland Greece tour, Aigio is the seat of the Aigialeia municipality under the 2011 reform. The seat is where the council of that municipality sits. The municipal unit has around 26,000 people, and the municipality about 49,000.

Where does the name of Xylokastro come from, for a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in Corinthia relates to Xylokastro, a seaside town on the Peloponnese. Corinthia is the regional unit that holds the city of Corinth. The name comes from a wooden castle thought to date from the 13th century.

In Greek, xylo refers to wood and kastro means castle. The town was also known as Solo Castro. For mainland Greece tour travellers, Xylokastro lies on the Gulf of Corinth, 30 kilometres northwest of Corinth. It sits near the mouth of the river Trikalitikos. That mouth is the spot where the stream empties into salt water.

A long white pebble beach runs for 2 kilometres along the shore. Pebbles are stones rounded smooth by waves. Behind the coast, semi-arid forest covers mixed ground. Semi-arid describes land that gets only modest rain each year. Early churches and traces of old settlements and holy sites lie scattered through this forest.

Away from the coastal strip, the municipal unit is mountainous. On a mainland Greece tour, the town’s modern growth goes back to 1923. That year brought the Greek and Turkish population exchange. Under it, the two states moved minority groups across the border. Greek refugees from around Nicomedia, Izmit in Turkish, settled in the town.

• Venetian name: In the 18th century, the Venetians called the village of Stylia by the name Viladusa.
• Statesmen: Panagis Tsaldaris and Sotirios Krokidas, both former prime ministers, are noted people of Xylokastro.
• Weekend coast: The town is a popular seaside spot for weekends among people from Athens.

For a mainland Greece tour, Xylokastro is now part of the Xylokastro-Evrostina municipality. This followed the 2011 local government reform. Before then, the town was a municipality of its own. Its municipal unit, an old municipality kept as a district, covers 310.252 square kilometres.

Who founded Glarentza, and why does it matter to a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour in Elis touches on Glarentza, a medieval town near the modern village of Kyllini. It stood at the westernmost point of the Peloponnese. William II of Villehardouin founded the town in the middle of the 13th century.

On a mainland Greece tour, Glarentza is known as the chief port of the Principality of Achaea. It also housed the princely mint, a workshop for stamping coins. Principality means a realm under a prince. This one was founded by Franks, Western European crusaders, after the Fourth Crusade.

For mainland Greece tour travellers, this spot was the best anchorage in Elis from ancient times. Anchorage names calm water where vessels lie at anchor. Trade made the town rich, and in the 14th century it used its own weights and measures. The town also had a hospital, banks and lodgings for sailors.

A list of fiefs from 1391 counted about 300 hearths in the town. That total placed it among the largest towns of the Principality. A fief meant an estate granted by a lord in exchange for loyal service. Each hearth stood for one household. The mint struck denier tournois, small coins of a French type, until 1353.

• Byzantine rule: In 1428 Glarentza passed to the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea, ruled by a despot, or prince.
• Decline: After the Ottoman conquest of 1460, the town was abandoned by the 16th century.
• Name myth: In 1846 William Martin Leake showed that the English title Clarence comes from Clare, Suffolk, not Glarentza.

On a mainland Greece tour, the remains of Glarentza are slight: traces of the wall and a church. Silt, the fine mud carried by water, has choked the old harbour. The church, in the north-east of the town, measured about 43 by 15 metres, an unusual size.

How does Andravida explain Frankish rule on a mainland Greece tour?

A mainland Greece tour leads back to Andravida, a town on the plains of north-west Elis. Frankish lords ruled their Principality of Achaea from this town in the late medieval period. Frankish rule here means lordship by crusaders from western Europe.

The origin of the name Andravida is unclear. The strongest proposal traces it to a Slavic name for a place of otters. Otters are furry swimmers that hunt fish in rivers. Crusader leader William of Champlitte took the town without a fight in 1205. Local Greek lords then paid him homage, a public pledge of loyalty.

For mainland Greece tour travellers, Andravida also has a French name, Andreville, and an Italian one, Andravilla. The town stood in the fertile plain of Elis, with food and grazing for horses. It lay near the port of Glarentza but away from the coast and its sea raids. Despite its importance, it was never fortified with walls.

From 1212 Andravida also housed a Roman Catholic bishopric, meaning a diocese led by a bishop. On a mainland Greece tour, Saint James’s Church served as the burial place of the Villehardouin princes. In 1241 this church passed to the Teutonic Order, a German religious order of crusading knights.

• Assemblies: Saint Sophia, run by Dominican friars, was the largest church in town and hosted noble assemblies.
• Survivor: Of the town’s Frankish churches, only Saint Sophia survives to a large extent today.
• Later rule: The Ottomans took Andravida in 1460 and held it, apart from a Venetian spell from 1686 to 1715.

For a mainland Greece tour, Andravida is a town of about 3,700 people. Since 2011 it belongs to the municipality of Andravida-Kyllini. Konstantinos Andravidiotis, a chieftain of the Greek War of Independence, is listed among its people. Chieftain means the head of a band of armed men.

What do travellers ask about mainland Greece tour, and what are the answers?

Mainland Greece tour questions turn to Gravia, Vonitsa, Astakos and Filiatra, four places on the Greek mainland. A Venetian fortress on a hill rises above Vonitsa, a beach town on the Ambracian Gulf. The name Astakos is the Greek word for lobster.

Before a mainland Greece tour, what happened at the Inn of Gravia?

The Battle of Gravia Inn was fought in the Greek War of Independence. A Greek group of 120 men under Odysseas Androutsos barricaded itself inside an old inn. An inn was a wayside lodging for people on the road. That night, before cannons arrived, the fighters slipped out and reached safety in the mountains.

On a mainland Greece tour, which revolt began in Vonitsa?

Ancient Anactorium, a key city of Acarnania, lay close to where Vonitsa stands now. Settlers from Corinth founded Anactorium in 630 BC. Vonitsa saw the start of a revolt on 18 October 1862. The rising spread to Athens and ended with King Otto losing his throne. Revolt means an armed challenge to a government.

For a mainland Greece tour, what older names did Astakos have?

The modern town takes its name from Astacus, an ancient town of Acarnania. During the Middle Ages its name was Dragamesti. Astakos faces a bay on the Ionian Sea, along its eastern shore. That bay is a curve of shoreline holding calm water. The southern end of the Acarnanian Mountains rises nearby.

What stands at the entrance to Filiatra on a mainland Greece tour?

Filiatra dates from around the 12th and 13th centuries, when it was founded. It grew close to the site of Erana, an ancient city. At the entrance to the village stands a smaller copy of the Eiffel Tower. The full-size Eiffel Tower is a wrought-iron tower in Paris.