Zygovisti
The purpose of this website is to present the village of Zygovisti, a listed traditional Arcadian settlement — one more of the barren yet picture-like villages of Gortynia…
Overview
Zigovisti (also Zygovisti) is a mountain village in the prefecture of Arcadia. It is built at an altitude of 1,160 metres on the slopes of Mount Mainalo and is one of the highest settlements in the Peloponnese. It lies 5 km from Dimitsana and has about 150 inhabitants. To get there, simply turn left midway along the Dimitsana – Stemnitsa road. It has been declared a traditional settlement.
In 1927 it was renamed Zygos, a name that did not last, as the older name was restored in 1932.
Zygovisti is a listed traditional Arcadian settlement — one more of the barren yet picture-like villages of Gortynia…
Zygovisti is well worth a visit… At the entrance of the village you can pay your respects at Agios Nikolaos (1638), and at the lower end of the village at Agios Ioannis Prodromos (1643). On the edge of the settlement stand the churches of the Holy Apostles (1811) and Agios Georgios (1897).
Visitors are impressed from the very entrance of the village! There they are welcomed by an original marble monument: an open book bearing the names of all the fighters from Zygovisti… some of whom Kolokotronis made part of his bodyguard, the “Immortal Corps”!
Here in Zygovisti, springs are plentiful: the Upper, Lower and Back fountains, the Drakouna fountain…
The village was founded around 1700 by the Kontogiannis family, who came from Messinia. The surrounding area is one of exceptional natural beauty, above all the fir-covered slope of Klinitsa and the gorge of the Lousios river. In Zygovisti there is a marble monument in the shape of an open book, dedicated to the 200 “Immortals” of Zygovisti who formed the bodyguard of Theodoros Kolokotronis during the Revolution of 1821. According to the historian Fotakos, “the enemy never saw the backs of the Immortals”. On the edge of the village, in a gorge above the Lousios river, lies the Monastery of Panagia Aimyalon.
According to tradition, the three brothers of Kolokotronis, the “Old Man of the Morea”, were trapped and killed in the monastery’s winepress (linos), perhaps after being betrayed by a monk. The winepress has been restored, and beside it stand three cypress trees planted in memory of the young men who lost their lives.
In his “Arcadica”, Pausanias places Zygovisti at the Sanctuary of Artemis Kalliste and the tomb of Callisto! The area was first settled by the Kontogiannis family who, in 1608, founded the Monastery of Aimyalon near Zygovisti! The main church of the monastery was built in 1630, while the village’s cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, with its ornate carved wooden iconostasis, was built in 1810 — in just 40 days! The Kapodistrian school building, built in 1830, is also a listed monument!
The village played an important role in the Revolution of 1821, as its inhabitants were among the first to follow Theodoros Kolokotronis, who used them as his bodyguards under the name “Immortal Corps”: in their honour, the central square of the village is called Athanaton (Immortals’) Square, where a marble monument stands.
History
