3 Weeks in Greece

3 weeks in Greece make a long trip with a tour leader through mainland regions and island groups. In the north, Thessaloniki holds the Arch of Galerius and Ladadika. Mieza, Ierissos, Alistrati Cave and Drama lie in Macedonia too. Thrace adds Komotini and Didymoteicho, and Epirus adds Perama, Vovousa, Kalarrytes and Paramythia. The Ionian, Sporades and North Aegean islands follow. Shorter plans sit in the 2 week Greece itinerary and the Mainland Greece tour. Island choices fill the Best Cyclades islands page. More trips appear under Greece tours.

Bookings made through the GetYourGuide widgets on this page earn Classical Greece Tours a commission, at no extra cost to the traveller.

What do 3 weeks in Greece look like?

3 weeks in Greece is a stay in a country whose north has more than one definition. The name Northern Greece mainly means the two northern regions of Macedonia and Western Thrace. Depending on context, the term also takes in Epirus.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Thessaloniki is the city where a ministry for the north had its base. It was the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace, known as the Ministry of Northern Greece. With Epirus included, the north roughly matches the New Lands. Greece took these lands after two Balkan Wars, in 1912 and 1913.

Across 3 weeks in Greece, the north also appears in European statistics. Voreia Ellada, Greek for Northern Greece, is one of four Greek statistical regions. The European Union created these regions for statistical purposes. From January 2015, Voreia Ellada took in Epirus in place of Thessaly. Greece does not use this division for its administration.

In 2011, Voreia Ellada had 3,590,187 inhabitants under its old borders. Greek Macedonia counted 2.36 million people in 2020. Macedonia forms a wide part of the Greek border with three countries. Albania lies to the northwest, North Macedonia to the north and Bulgaria to the northeast. The region yields the majority of Greek farm output.

• Heritage: For 3 weeks in Greece, Central Macedonia holds four UNESCO World Heritage sites.
• Dialect: In linguistics, Northern Greece means the lands where the Northern Greek dialect is spoken.
• Old Greece: The lands held before 1912 were called Old Greece, in contrast to the New Lands.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Greek Macedonia fills the whole southern part of the wider Macedonian region. It makes up 51% of the total area of that region. The name Macedonia links to the ancient Greek word makednós, meaning tall and slim.

Which Roman victory does the Arch of Galerius carve for 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece meet the Arch of Galerius in Thessaloniki, a Roman triumphal arch. Its building ran across the years 298 and 299 AD. In 303 AD it was dedicated to a victory at Satala and the capture of Ctesiphon.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the arch was an octopylon, an eight-pillared gateway that formed a triple arch. A triumphal arch is a grand gateway raised to honour a victory. Its core was rubble masonry, a fill of rough stones. Builders faced that core first with brick and then with carved marble panels.

The central opening spanned the Via Egnatia, the main Roman road from Dyrrhacium to Byzantium. Inside the city, that road formed the decumanus maximus, or chief east-west street. Each side opening measured 4.8 m across and rose 6.5 m. A road from the round Rotunda to the palace, 235 m southwest, ran through the arch.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, roughly two-thirds of the structure remains today. Each pillar carried four stacked registers of carvings, split by moulded bands. A register is one band of scenes set above another. One panel shows Galerius fighting the Sassanid king Narses in person, although the two never met in battle.

• Family: Galerius’s wife Valeria, daughter of the emperor Diocletian, appears at his side in one carved panel.
• River label: A carved label for the Tigris River survives on the arch.
• Old guesses: In the 19th century, people tied the arch to Constantine, Philip II or Alexander.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the arch also holds a story from late 1864. The Frenchman Emmanuel Miller came to Thessaloniki to take a portico, a columned porch, to France. False rumours said he also meant to remove the arch, which stayed untouched.

Which old inns and warehouses shape Ladadika on 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece reach Ladadika, a district of Thessaloniki. Its warehouses and shops once traded olive oil, spices and other foods. After gentrification in the 1980s, it became the entertainment district of the city. Gentrification is the renewal of an old area for new uses.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Ladadika is a district where Jews of Thessaloniki lived in large numbers. The Frankish district, called Frankomahala, lay beside it. French and Italian merchants and residents lived in that quarter. Today the core of Ladadika is bounded by four streets: Tsimiski, Salaminas, Kountourioti and I. Dragoumi.

After the 1978 earthquake, the old warehouses and shops were gradually abandoned. Work on a full regeneration of the area began in the early 1990s. Regeneration means rebuilding a worn area so that it lives again. The buildings were saved from demolition. Ladadika has kept its original urban and architectural layout to a great extent.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Bensousan Han stands in upper Ladadika, on Edessis Street. Han is a Turkish word for a motel, an inn or a small caravanserai. A caravanserai is a roadside lodge for travelling traders. Ottoman records date its foundations and ground floor to 1810. Samuel Bensousan, a Jewish citizen of Thessaloniki, owned it.

• Fire: Bensousan Han survived the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 and stayed a motel until about 1930.
• Arts: Since 2007 the artistic community of Thessaloniki has gradually rediscovered the han.
• Squares: Pedestrianised streets and small squares, among them Morichovou Square, run through the district.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Ladadika serves as a place of bars, nightclubs, restaurants and pubs. These fill buildings that were once oil stores and merchant warehouses. A merchant warehouse is a store building where traders kept their goods.

Why does Aristotle’s school at Mieza matter for 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece touch the story of Mieza, a town of ancient Macedonia. Aristotle was said to have taught the young Alexander the Great there between 343 and 340 BCE. Modern Lefkadia, near the town of Naousa, stands on its site.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Mieza links to Philip II, who hired Aristotle as his son’s teacher. Philip gave the philosopher the Temple of the Nymphs as a classroom. Philosophy is the study of truth, knowledge and right living. Fellow students included Hephaestion, Ptolemy I Soter, Cassander and Cleitus the Black.

The School of Aristotle lies in the Nymphaeum of Mieza, a sanctuary, or holy place, of the nymphs. Nymphs are nature spirits of old myth. There Aristotle taught Alexander philosophy, ethics, arts and mathematics. Between two natural caves, builders cut the rock upright and added an Ionic colonnade. A colonnade means columns set in a line.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Mieza keeps a theatre from the Hellenistic period, the 2nd century BC. Hellenistic describes the Greek world in the centuries after Alexander. Workers came upon the theatre by chance in 1992. Its seating held between 1,500 and 2,000 people. The museum of archaeology at Veria holds tiles from the gallery roof.

• Name: In Macedonian myth, Mieza was a daughter of Beres and a sister of Beroia.
• Digs: Archaeologists have dug at the site of Mieza since the year 1954.
• Tomb of Kinch: It is named after Kinch, the Danish archaeologist who excavated it late in the 19th century.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Mieza holds the Macedonian tomb of the Anthemians from the 3rd century BC. It is a two-chamber vaulted tomb. A vaulted tomb has an arched stone ceiling over its rooms. Stephanus of Byzantium records that Mieza was sometimes called Strymonium.

Which ancient name lies behind Ierissos on 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece extend north to Chalkidiki and the Akti peninsula. Ierissos is a small town on its east coast. It stands 10 km from the border of the monks’ state of Mount Athos. Its name comes from Ericius, a Latin translation of Akanthos.

For 3 weeks in Greece, ancient Akanthos lies on a ridge beside Ierissos. The old city sits 0.6 km southeast of the town. Ierissos also stands on ancient Hierissus. In 1927 the Latin Catholic Church restored the old bishopric of Hierissus in name only. A bishopric is the area under one bishop.

In the Byzantine era, Erissos held a bishop’s seat, attested from 883. From the 10th century on, the history of the town is closely tied to Mount Athos. In 942 Ierissos and the monks of Athos disputed the borders of their lands. A large commission of politicians and church officials settled the matter the next year.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Ierissos is a town rebuilt after a powerful earthquake in 1932. The quake destroyed the old village. The new Ierissos went up slightly north-west of the old city. The only recorded bishop of the see was Elia, active in 1054. He is known from a seal, a stamped mark of office.

• Seat: Since 2011, Ierissos has served as seat of the Aristotelis municipality.
• Ottoman era: In the summer of 1425, Ierissos came into the hands of the Turks.
• Burning: Venetian forces then burnt the settlement and set alight its castle and five towers.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Akanthos was an ancient Greek city near Mount Athos. Under Rome it belonged to the province of Macedonia Prima. A province was a region ruled by a Roman governor, and Prima is Latin for first.

What fills Alistrati Cave on 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece hold a cave story at Alistrati, a small town in Serres. The cave itself sits roughly 6 km to the southeast, in an area named Petroto. Its whole area covers almost 14,000 square metres.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the cave opens with an antechamber 8 m high. An antechamber is an entrance room in front of larger halls. The main reception chamber is 60 m wide and 100 m long. Its height runs from 20 to 30 m. High galleries full of stalactites and stalagmites lead off from the antechamber.

Stalactites are limestone tubes that grow down from the ceiling. Stalagmites form where water drops carrying carbonate, a dissolved mineral, fall to the floor. When a stalactite meets a stalagmite, the two make a column. In a second passage stand red stalagmites called The Flames. These formations reach a height of 35 m.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, the cave also holds huge stalactites with a height of 15 m. They hang where the two main passages join. The older stalactites sit in the galleries right of the entrance. Younger ones, called infants, grow on the left side. Greek myth puts the entrance to the underworld near the Aggitis ravine close by.

• Helictites: These rare stalactites grow on the sides, floors and ceilings of caves, pointing up, sideways and down.
• Cave pearls: Cave pearls are small formations shaped like spheres inside the cave.
• Gours: Gours are low dams of calcium carbonate lying across the floor of the cave.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Alistrati itself stands at 325 m, on hills of the Menoikio range. A manuscript of 1460 mentions it as a small town. In 2021 the town had 1,682 people. It is a listed traditional settlement.

How do churches, caves and films shape Drama for 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece add Drama, a city and municipality in Macedonia, northeastern Greece. Its oldest surviving monument, apart from an ancient Macedonian tomb, is the church of Hagia Sophia. The church went up in the tenth century, along with the city walls.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Hagia Sophia is Greek for Holy Wisdom. During Ottoman rule, the church was turned into a mosque. A mosque is where Muslims gather to pray. In 1519 the town had 116 Muslim and 153 Christian households. A household is a family group living under one roof.

Drama’s archaeological museum follows human presence in the district from the mid-Paleolithic. That point lies 50,000 years before the present. Paleolithic means the Old Stone Age. Finds from the cave of Maara point to roaming hunters in that age. A copy of a Neolithic, or New Stone Age, house is the main centre of interest.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Drama is home to the Drama International Short Film Festival, held since 1978. A short film is a film far shorter than a full-length film. The festival won national recognition in 1987. In 1995 it added an international competition section. Short films from across the world come to the city each year.

• Ski resort: The Drama area has a modern ski resort on Mount Falakro.
• Economy: Tobacco plantations, small-scale marble mining and forestry bring the area income.
• Icons: The church museum of Drama shows icons of the Virgin and the Blessing Lord from the 13th century.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the church museum holds icons from Byzantine times to the 20th century. Refugees from Asia Minor and Pontus brought part of the exhibits in 1922. An icon is a sacred image of Christ, Mary or a saint.

Which early Ottoman building does Komotini keep for 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece stretch east to Thrace, where the Imaret of Komotini stands. An imaret is an Ottoman charity building. This one is thought to be among the oldest surviving Ottoman monuments in Europe. It dates from the early 1360s to the late fourteenth century.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the imaret is the work of Gazi Ahmed Evrenos, an Ottoman conqueror. He placed it near the eastern walls of the Byzantine Koumoutzedes Castle. The site lay outside Mosynopolis, on the road from Constantinople to the west. The builders used the Byzantine method of brick-enclosed masonry. Masonry is walling built from stone.

Three spaces form a T shape on its ground plan. A ground plan is a drawing of a building seen from above. A marble female head from the Roman period is built into the south side. A restoration from 1996 to 1999 returned the windows to their original shape.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, the eastern part of the imaret has an inscription in Cyrillic. Cyrillic is the alphabet used for Bulgarian. In the nineteenth century, while Bulgarians held the city, that part became a church. In 1924 an ice factory complex rose on the site. Until 1973, the electric lighting service of Komotini used parts of it.

• Museum: Since 1999 the building has served as the Ecclesiastical Museum of the Metropolis of Maroneia and Komotini.
• Exhibits: Icons, sacred vessels, vestments and manuscripts from local churches date from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries.
• Tradition: Local tradition ties the site to a Byzantine church of the Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the imaret became a museum after an official grant in 1996. During the restoration that followed, the roof received tiles of the same type. Workers also repaired the walls and the mortar between the stones.

How did twin walls name Didymoteicho for 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece find Didymoteicho on the eastern edge of the Evros regional unit, in northeastern Greece. Its name is the modern Greek form of Didymoteichon. That older word joins the Greek terms for twin and wall. The name first appears in 591/592.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Didymoteicho keeps the ruins of Plotinopolis, a Roman city. Early in the 2nd century, Emperor Trajan founded it on the Evros river. He named it after his wife, Pompeia Plotina. The ruins are now called the Kale, Turkish for castle. Justinian I later improved its walls.

Plotinopolis sat on exposed low ground, so people soon left it for the newer fortress. The town was the birthplace of the emperors John III Doukas Vatatzes and John V Palaiologos. John VI Kantakouzenos was crowned emperor there on 26 October 1341. Murad I, an Ottoman ruler, lived there until at least 1377.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Didymoteicho is the birthplace of Sultan Bayezid II. The Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi visited the town in 1670. He counted 600 multi-storey houses in an outer town split into 12 wards. A ward is a district of a town. Its chief produce was grapes and quinces, with highly rated local pottery and glassware.

• Mosque: The Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Mosque, also called the Beyazid Mosque, was completed in 1420.
• Baths: The Silent Baths, or Oruç Pasha Hamam, are the oldest hamam, or Turkish bath, in Europe.
• Walls: The Byzantine walls of the fortress run 1 km and reach 12 m in height, with 24 towers.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the fortress holds a cave beside the Cathedral of Saint Athanasios. Charles XII, King of Sweden, is said to have lived there under house arrest. The cathedral dates from 1834, and the Church of Christ from 1846.

What lies below Perama for 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece span Epirus as well, where Perama is a town in the Ioannina regional unit. It is famous for its cave, the Cave of Perama. The cave runs five kilometres underground. In Greek, the town name Perama means passage.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the Cave of Perama holds a striking array of stalagmites and stalactites. Stalactites are stone spikes that hang from a cave roof. Stalagmites are stone mounds that rise from the floor. Of the whole cave, only one kilometre has been fully explored. To explore a cave is to search and map its passages.

Perama sits roughly 4 km to the north of central Ioannina. In 2011, Ioannina became one municipality through the merger of six former municipalities, Perama among them. Each municipality runs its own local affairs. In 2021 the Perama municipal unit had 4,695 inhabitants. The unit covers an area of 105.725 square kilometres.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, the town keeps a church of Saint Haralambos from the 11th century. Tradition holds that the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus built it. A Byzantine emperor ruled the Eastern Roman Empire from Constantinople. The church is now in a bad state of repair. The largest settlements of the unit are Perama, Krya, Kranoula, Amfithea and Perivleptos.

• Communities: The Perama unit holds nine communities, among them Kryovrysi, Ligkiades, Mazia and Spothoi.
• Community area: The community of Perama itself covers 7.597 square kilometres of land.
• Lake: Lake Pamvotida, on whose shore Perama stands, is the largest lake in Epirus.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Perama sits at the north end of Lake Pamvotis. The lake sits in the centre of the Ioannina regional unit, in northern Greece. Pamvotis is a Greek name, and the lake is also called Pamvotida.

Which river name links Vovousa to 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece reach Zagori in Epirus, where Vovousa is one of the original villages. The names of the village and the river Vjosa are intertwined. In Greek, people near the village call the river Vovousa too. Intertwined means closely linked.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the river once bore the ancient name Aoos. That name survived in the later forms Voosa and Vovousa. Aromanian speakers name river and village alike Băiasa. Aromanian is a Balkan language close to Romanian. The linguist Kostas Oikonomou traced Băiasa to Aromanian words for lake or marsh.

At Vovousa, the single-arched stone bridge of Misios was built in 1748. Alexis Mitsios from Vitsa paid for it with a donation. Single-arched means the bridge spans the water with one curve of stone. Vovousa also lies near the National Park of Valia Kalda. Its Aromanian and Romanian form, Valea Caldă, means warm valley.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Vovousa is a village where Sarakatsani settled in the early 20th century. The Sarakatsani are Greek speakers. In 2021 the village had 132 people. It joined the Zagori municipality through the reform of 2011. Each municipal unit forms a section of a wider municipality. The unit of Vovousa covers 51.029 square kilometres.

• Old sound: The forms Voosa and Vovousa kept the f sound of the mainland Doric Greek dialect.
• Albanian link: The historian Gottfried Schramm saw the Albanian Vjosë as the basis for Serbo-Croatian Vajusa and Vojuša.
• History: German forces burnt the village of Vovousa on 23 October 1943.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the Aromanian noun baie behind Băiasa means bath or mine. Oikonomou linked it to the Slavic banja and the Latin balneum, both meaning bath. Latin was the language spoken by the ancient Romans. Slavic languages include Serbian and Bulgarian.

What does the word horseman reveal about Kalarrytes on 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece meet Kalarrytes, an Epirus village within the Ioannina regional unit. The local government reform of 2011 placed it in the municipality of North Tzoumerka. One account traces its name to the Aromanian word călár, meaning horseman.

For 3 weeks in Greece, that account starts with Kalari, a placename taken from the surname Kalaris. A surname is a family name. The linguists Konstantinos Nikolaidis and Tache Papahagi traced călár to the Latin caballarius. Nikolaidis wrote in 1909 and Papahagi in 1974. A linguist is a scholar of languages and their history.

Kostas Oikonomou preferred a root in the Aromanian cal, meaning horse. He joined it to the suffix -ar, which marks livestock trades in other Aromanian words. In grammar, a suffix is a short end piece of a word. Livestock are animals kept on farms, like sheep or goats. Oikonomou judged a link between Kalarrytes and the name Kalavryta less convincing.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, the climate of Kalarrytes is temperate and oceanic, close to warm-summer Mediterranean. Temperate means mild, without great extremes of heat or cold. Winters there are cool and rainy, while summers are warm and drier. In Greek, the name also appears as Kalarrytai, Kalarriti and Kalaryta.

• Villages: The community of Kalarrytes is made up of two villages, Kalarrytes and Mystras.
• Area: The municipal unit of Kalarrytes covers an area of 39.959 square kilometres.
• Speech: In the early 21st century, elderly people there were bilingual in the community language and Greek.

For 3 weeks in Greece, Kalarrytes is a village with an Aromanian population and Aromanian speech. Younger residents under 40 did not use the community language in that period. Bilingual means able to speak two languages well. Aromanian descends from Latin and is spoken in the Balkans.

Where does Paramythia stand between the rivers of Epirus on 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece also cover Thesprotia in Epirus, where Paramythia lies at 750 m below Mount Gorilla. The town forms an amphitheatre between the Acheron and Kalamas rivers. Its name echoes one of the Greek names for the Virgin Mary: comforter.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the Kokytos river runs at the city limits of Paramythia. In Greek myth, it is a river of the underworld, where the dead dwell. The Gorilla range, 1,658 m high, rises east of the town. Chionistra, at 1,644 m, rises to the northeast.

The earliest known inhabitants of the area were the Chaonians, a Greek tribe. A tribe is a people bound by shared descent. Paramythia began as the Chaonian city of Photike, named after Photios, a Chaonian leader. In Byzantine and much of Ottoman times, the town was known in Greek as Agios Donatos. Agios means saint.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Paramythia is tied to a hoard of bronzes from the mid-2nd century AD. A hoard is a stored group of valuable objects. Its nineteen bronzes came to light near the town in the 1790s. It went to St Petersburg, to the collection of Catherine the Great. Fourteen of the statuettes reached the British Museum.

• Castle: The Castle of Paramythia rose on a hill at a high point of the town in Byzantine times.
• Hub: The town serves the small villages of the Valley of Paramythia as a regional hub.
• School: A Greek language school is recorded in Paramythia from 1682.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the valley of Paramythia ranks among the largest in Thesprotia. It is one of the major farming areas of Epirus. Farming and trade lead the local economy. An amphitheatre is a curved slope rising in tiers.

Which poet ties Zakynthos to 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can include Zakynthos, an Ionian island. In June 1960, George Seferis had the remains of the poet Andreas Kalvos moved there. They rest in the church of St Nicolas. Kalvos wrote in the Romantic school, a movement of strong feeling.

On 3 weeks in Greece, Zakynthos is the island where Kalvos was born, under Venetian rule. As a boy, Kalvos went with his father and brother to Livorno in Italy. Their mother stayed behind, and the two boys never saw her again. In Livorno, Kalvos first took up ancient Greek and Latin history and literature.

In 1812 Kalvos met Ugo Foscolo, an Italian poet and scholar also born on Zakynthos. Foscolo made him his copyist, someone who writes out clean copies. He wrote three Italian tragedies in 1813. A tragedy is a grave drama with a sad ending. In Britain he earned a living by teaching Italian and Greek.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Corfu is the island where Kalvos settled in August 1826. There he taught at the Ionian Academy, first as a private tutor, then by appointment from 1836. He printed no new poems after 1826. In later life he and his wife Charlotte ran a school for girls at Louth, in England.

• Lectures: In 1818 and 1819 he gave talks in Britain on how to pronounce ancient Greek.
• Rediscovery: The poet Kostis Palamas brought his forgotten work back to light in 1888.
• Peers: Kalvos lived at the same time as the poets Ugo Foscolo and Dionysios Solomos.

Kalvos counts as one voice of the Heptanese School, a strand of Greek literature. For 3 weeks in Greece, Heptanese is a Greek name for the Ionian Islands, meaning seven islands. His 1814 Italian ode, To the Ionians, showed sympathy for his fellow islanders.

On Skiathos, which writer belongs to 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can reach Skiathos, an island in the western Aegean Sea. The writer Alexandros Papadiamantis was born there on 4 March 1851. The island plays a large part in his stories and novels. He died of pneumonia, a lung illness, in 1911.

For 3 weeks in Greece, his tale also reaches Athens, where he studied philosophy at the university. Philosophy means the search for truth through reasoned thought. Money troubles stopped him from finishing his studies. Instead, he lived by writing all his adult life. His output ran from journalism and short stories to novels printed in parts.

Newspapers and magazines competed for his writing once he became popular. Caring little for money, he asked for lower fees when he judged an offer unfairly high. He also gave his earnings to people in greater need. Chanting at church was among his true cares. Chanting means singing prayers in a steady, simple tune.

His novels in parts were adventures set around the Mediterranean Sea. Their rich plots involve captivity, war, pirates and the plague. He wrote in katharevousa, a purist written Greek shaped by the ancient tongue. Purist means keeping old forms and avoiding new ones. His characters speak demotic, the everyday spoken Greek of the people.

• Masterpiece: On 3 weeks in Greece, Skiathos is the setting of The Murderess, his acknowledged masterpiece.
• Saint: In his story The Poor Saint, a shepherd dies at the hands of Saracen pirates.
• Praise: The poet Odysseas Elytis wrote a call to commemorate both Solomos and Papadiamantis.

Skiathos, on 3 weeks in Greece, produced a writer whose work is almost impossible to translate. Its force rests on diglossia, the use of two forms of one language. In his work, high katharevousa carries the story and local dialect fills the dialogue.

What does the Winged Victory of Samothrace add to 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can reach Samothrace, the northeastern Aegean island where the Winged Victory came to light. The whole monument stands 5.57 metres high. It sets the goddess Nike on a stone base carved as a ship’s prow.

It is among the rare major Hellenistic statues to survive in the original, not as a Roman copy. Hellenistic is the label for the period when Greek culture spread after Alexander’s conquests. Since 1884 the monument has stood at the top of the main staircase of the Louvre in Paris. Greece wants the sculpture sent back.

On 3 weeks in Greece, Paros is the source of the white Parian marble of the statue. Its ship base is grey marble with white veins from the Lartos quarries on Rhodes. The goddess is about 1.6 times life size. She is built from six separate blocks, held together by metal braces.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Samothrace holds the old site, at the south end of a portico terrace. A portico is a long roofed walkway held up by columns. Restorers have rebuilt its foundation walls and marked where the statue once stood. In July 1950, Louvre curator Jean Charbonneaux unearthed the statue’s right palm there.

• Ship: The ship base holds 16 blocks, while a seventeenth block stayed on Samothrace.
• Colour: Lab tests picked up small marks of blue paint on the goddess’s wings.
• Wartime: At the start of the Second World War in 1939, the statue went to the Château de Valençay.

The goddess is not walking but ending her flight, her wings still spread behind her. Her raised right hand made a gesture of salute and held nothing. For 3 weeks in Greece, Samothrace is the island that gave up this Hellenistic masterpiece.

Who was Spyridon Samaras, the Corfu composer on 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can include Corfu, the island where the composer Spyridon Samaras was born. He composed the music of the Olympic Hymn. Samaras was particularly admired for his operas, which are plays set to music and sung by the cast.

Samaras first studied with Spyridon Xyndas. From 1875 to 1882 he trained at the Athens Conservatory, a college of music. His first opera, Torpillae, was first staged in Athens in 1879 and is now lost. In 1882 he moved to Paris to study at the Paris Conservatoire. There he became a favourite pupil of Jules Massenet.

3 weeks in Greece share Corfu with a composer who moved to Italy in 1885. He soon became a key figure in the Italian opera scene. His opera Flora mirabilis opened in Milan in 1886. His operas were staged in Paris, Monte Carlo, Berlin, Vienna, Cairo and other cities. In all, he wrote fifteen stage works.

The hymn was first performed at the opening of the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Games. Its words came from the poet Kostis Palamas. Demetrius Vikelas chose Samaras to compose it. In 1958 the International Olympic Committee named it the movement’s official anthem. An anthem is a song of praise.

• Ceremonies: The hymn has sounded at every opening ceremony since the 1960 Winter Olympics.
• Roots: His father, Skarlatos Samaras, was born in Vienna to a Greek family from Siatista.
• Unfinished: Tigra, his last opera, was never finished, and only Act 1 exists.

Through Samaras, 3 weeks in Greece touch the Ionian School, which he has a strong claim to lead. Rival National School composers found that school too Italian. On 3 weeks in Greece, his resting place is the National Cemetery in Athens, near the 1896 stadium.

How does Skopelos town fit into 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can include Skopelos town, the main town of the island of Skopelos. The island lies in the Sporades regional unit of Thessaly. The town has a harbour and a small heliport, a landing pad for helicopters.

On 3 weeks in Greece, Skopelos town covers the ground where ancient Peparethus once stood. Peparethus joined the Delian League, a union of city-states headed by Athens. An earthquake struck the ancient city in 426 BCE, during the Peloponnesian War. The letters BCE mark years before the Common Era, as BC does.

Philip V of Macedon placed a garrison in the city in 207 BCE, to hold off the Romans. A garrison means troops stationed in a town to guard it. Then, in 200 BCE, he destroyed it so that it did not fall to the Romans. Hagnon of Peparethus was an Olympic victor in 568 BC.

Bishop Riginos died as a martyr in 362 AD, under the Emperor Julian. A martyr is a person killed for refusing to give up a faith. His feast day, 25 February, is a holiday on the island that 3 weeks in Greece can reach. All but one church on the island follow the Greek Orthodox faith.

• Historian: Diocles of Peparethus was an ancient Greek historian from the old city.
• Economy: The economy of Skopelos now depends fully on tourism and the building trade it supports.
• Olives: Farming is in decline, yet olive oil output on Skopelos was strong in 2006.

Beyond 3 weeks in Greece, Skopelos is also a year-round retirement place for Northern Europeans. Ellopion of Peparethus, an ancient Greek philosopher, came from the old city. Philosophers reason about deep questions such as truth, life and right action.

Why is Terpander of Antissa part of 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can include Lesbos, the island that was home to Terpander of Antissa. He was a Greek poet and citharede, a singer who played the cithara, a type of lyre. He lived early in the 7th century BC, in about its first half.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Lesbos claims Terpander, the father of Greek music and lyric poetry. Lyric poetry is verse sung to the lyre, a small stringed instrument. He has a claim to be the earliest historically certain figure in ancient Greek music. He brought the singing styles of Greece and Anatolia into one system.

After killing a man in a brawl, Terpander was sent into exile. For 3 weeks in Greece, Sparta is the city where he settled, around the Second Messenian War. One account says the Delphic Oracle called him there to settle disputes between classes. In Sparta he won the prize in the music contests of the Carneia festival.

The writer Strabo says Terpander raised the strings of the lyre from four to seven. Others read the same fragment as a change to the parts of a sung piece. He is also said to have added new rhythms beyond the dactylic. A dactyl is one long beat followed by two short ones.

• Songs: Terpander was also famous as a composer of drinking songs, called skolia.
• Survival: No poem by Terpander survives complete, and later writers quote only a small number of lines.
• Pupil: The musician Pericleitus is named as a pupil of Terpander.

Terpander is said to have choked to death on a fig thrown in praise of a performance. On 3 weeks in Greece, his story runs from Antissa on Lesbos to Sparta. Before his exile, he gained a reputation as a singer and composer.

Where does the New Fortress of Corfu sit within 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can include Corfu and its New Fortress, on the hill of St Mark. Venice built the fortress in stages. The military engineer Ferrante Vitelli was its first architect. An architect plans buildings and oversees their construction.

For 3 weeks in Greece, the fort’s history begins after Corfu’s first great Ottoman siege of 1537. During a siege, troops encircle a town until it gives in. In the suburb of San Rocco, Venice pulled down 2,000 homes to make way for new walls. Accounts of its dates vary; one runs from 1572 to 1645.

The compound has two levels. The lower one holds a three-storey building called Punta Perpetua and a five-sided bastion. Bastions are angled outworks that let defenders fire along the walls. Inside the bastion lies a maze of arched rooms, galleries, stairs and ramps. The fortress also has two gates in the ornate baroque style.

On 3 weeks in Greece, its twin bastions are Skarponas and Epta Anemoi, whose name means seven winds. One bastion stands 55 m above sea level. It holds underground cisterns, powder stores and artillery posts. Cisterns are sealed tanks that keep a store of water. Each governor held a two-year term, by vote of the Venetian Senate.

• Oath: Each governor swore never to communicate with the other during his term.
• Guns: Its defences once held 700 pieces of artillery, meaning large guns.
• Navy: A brick building at the top now houses the Naval Station of Corfu.

The present buildings inside the fortress date from British rule, which began in 1815. When Corfu joined Greece in 1864, the British destroyed its sea defences. Within 3 weeks in Greece, Corfu keeps old British barracks here that now house art exhibits.

What links the poet Rupert Brooke and Skyros to 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can reach Skyros, where the English poet Rupert Brooke was buried in 1915. His idealistic war sonnets include The Dead and The Soldier. They date from the First World War. A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines.

Rugby, far from the Skyros of 3 weeks in Greece, is the English town where Brooke was born. He was named after a great-grandfather, Rupert Chawner, a distinguished doctor. His father was a schoolmaster at Rugby School. At Cambridge he helped found the Marlowe Society, a drama club, and acted in the Cambridge Greek Play.

Brooke belonged to the Georgian Poets, a literary group of his time. He was also one of the leading Dymock poets, named after a village in Gloucestershire. That group included Robert Frost and Edward Thomas. His poem on the Old Vicarage, Grantchester, was written in Berlin in 1912, out of homesickness.

Brooke joined the Royal Navy after war broke out in August 1914. In the Royal Naval Division, he fought at the siege of Antwerp. On 11 March, a literary journal printed two of his sonnets. On 3 weeks in Greece, Skyros keeps his grave, marked today by a permanent memorial.

• Cross: His mother had the original wooden cross taken to the family plot in Rugby.
• Statue: In 1988 the sculptor Ivor Roberts-Jones was asked to make a statue of Brooke for Rugby.
• Travels: To recover from a crisis, he toured the United States and Canada, writing travel diaries.

In March 1913, his thesis on John Webster won him a fellowship at King’s College, Cambridge. A fellowship is a paid post for study and research at a college. For 3 weeks in Greece, Skyros holds the grave of a friend of the Bloomsbury group of writers.

Which Trojan War hero gives Lemnos a place in 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can include Lemnos, where Homer’s Iliad places the exile of the hero Philoctetes. Book 2 of the Iliad tells of his exile, his snake-bite and his recall. An exile is a person forced to live away from home.

3 weeks in Greece share Lemnos with the owner of the bow and arrows of Heracles. He or his father lit the pyre on which Heracles burned and became immortal. A pyre is a heap of wood for burning a body. He had also been a suitor of Helen, which bound him to join the war at Troy.

In every version of the tale, a wound to his foot festered and smelled terrible. Festered means went bad and filled with pus. One version says Hera sent the snake that bit him, to punish his service to Heracles. In the surviving play by Sophocles, the wound came on the island of Chryse.

Helenus, a Trojan prince with the gift of prophecy, said the Greeks needed the bow to win. At Troy, a son of the healer Asclepius cured him for good. One version credits Philoctetes with the death of Paris, another Trojan prince. On 3 weeks in Greece, Lemnos keeps a tale in which its own soil healed him.

• Plays: Four ancient Greek plays told his story, but only Sophocles’ Philoctetes survives.
• Horse: He was among the warriors chosen to hide inside the Trojan Horse.
• Portrait: The chronicler Malalas called him brave, sensible and an accurate archer.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Lemnos is also where Euneus, its king, granted him land later called Akesa. Odysseus had advised the leaders to leave him, so Philoctetes held a grudge against him. A grudge is lasting anger over a past wrong.

What part does Polycrates of Samos play in 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can include Samos, once ruled by the tyrant Polycrates. He held power between the 540s BC and 522 BC. A tyrant meant a sole ruler who took control by force. He had fame as a fierce fighter and also as an enlightened ruler.

The historian Herodotus is the main source for his life. Herodotus says Polycrates took power with his brothers and only fifteen men. He built a navy of 100 penteconters, long warships driven by oars. It became the strongest navy in the Greek world. He also raised an army of 1,000 archers.

The poets Anacreon and Ibycus enjoyed his support as patron. A patron is a rich backer who pays artists to work. For 3 weeks in Greece, Samos is where Polycrates founded a library. He also brought in better breeds of sheep, goats and dogs. Under his rule, Samian engineering reached a level unusual in ancient Greece.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, Pythagorion is the modern name of his capital, whose harbour he upgraded. He ordered a deep-water mole, a stone sea wall, nearly a quarter mile long. It still shelters Greek fishing boats today. In 522 BC he staged a twin festival honouring Delian and Delphic Apollo.

• Ring: Legend says he threw a jewelled ring into the sea to avoid a turn of fortune.
• Fish: Days later, his cooks found the same ring inside a large fish.
• Ships: He is said to have ordered the Samaina, a ship with a deck and two rows of oars.

King Amasis of Egypt then broke off their alliance, believing so lucky a man faced ruin. On 3 weeks in Greece, Samos is the home of this tale, which Herodotus told about fortune. Fortune here means luck that rises and falls.

Which dolphin legend from Lesbos joins 3 weeks in Greece?

3 weeks in Greece can include Lesbos, whose islanders claimed the singer Arion as their native son. He came from Methymna, a town on the island. Arion was a kitharode, meaning he sang while playing the kithara, a large lyre.

Arion is credited with inventing the dithyramb. A dithyramb is a choral song in honour of the god Dionysus. For 3 weeks in Greece, Corinth is where Herodotus says Arion first taught the dithyramb. Herodotus ranked him equal to the finest lyre-players of his day. One scholar says he added a chorus of 50 people.

Herodotus tells how Arion won a music contest in Sicily. On the voyage home, greedy sailors plotted to kill him and steal his prizes. He asked to sing one last song, a praise to Apollo, and dolphins gathered round the ship. Arion then leapt into the sea, and a dolphin carried him to safety.

On 3 weeks in Greece, Cape Tainaron held the sanctuary of Poseidon where the dolphin landed him. Sanctuary here means sacred ground given over to a god’s worship. Periander, tyrant of Corinth, later had the dolphin buried and a monument raised to it. Apollo then placed Arion and the dolphin among the stars as the constellation Delphinus.

• Tragedy: For 3 weeks in Greece, Methymna is named in a report that Arion first brought in tragedy.
• Court: Much of his life passed at the court of Periander in Corinth.
• Hymn: Part of a hymn to Poseidon survives, and Aelian credited it to Arion.

Arion lives on mainly through the tale of his rescue by dolphins, a folktale motif. A motif is a pattern that returns again and again in stories. Augustine of Hippo, a Christian writer, took Arion to be a real historical person.

What do travellers ask about 3 weeks in Greece, and what are the answers?

3 weeks in Greece can take in small towns on the Aegean islands. Glossa lies in the Northern Sporades, and Mantamados lies on Lesbos in the North Aegean. Limenaria is on Thasos in northern Greece, and Kokkari is a village on Samos.

Within 3 weeks in Greece, what is Glossa on Skopelos?

Glossa is a village and community in the northwest of Skopelos, in the Northern Sporades. Its Greek name means tongue. In 2021 the community counted 970 people, including the villages of Atheato and Loutraki. Glossa gained a state primary school and a phone exchange in 1960. That year it had 1,842 inhabitants.

During 3 weeks in Greece, what is Mantamados on Lesbos known for?

Mantamados, a town and one-time municipality, lies in the northeast corner of Lesbos. The 2021 census counted 2,070 residents. The monastery of the Archangel Michael stands on the outskirts of the village. Archangel means an angel of the highest rank. The monastery is popular with believers across Greece.

Over 3 weeks in Greece, how large is Limenaria on Thasos?

Limenaria is a Thasos village in northern Greece. Its name means covelets, or little coves. With 2,428 residents at the 2021 census, it ranks second in size among Thasos settlements. Tourists have come since the 1960s, drawn by Stelakis Beach, a strand 1.2 km long. A strand is a stretch of beach.

For 3 weeks in Greece, what kind of village is Kokkari on Samos?

Kokkari is a village on Samos, about 10 kilometres from the island capital, also called Samos. It started out as a fishing harbour and is now a tourist centre. Its houses climb a small peninsula to the top of a hill. One side has a small harbour, the other a pebble beach.

Featured photo: Annatsach, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.