At a distance of 220 km from Athens, on the slopes of Mainalo, there is a traditional stone village with a rich history through the centuries.
From the first post-Byzantine years and the mythology in ancient Greece, and from the modern history and its important role in the Greek revolution until today, Stemnitsa unfolds before the eyes of the visitor thanks to Travel inspiration, giving him all that information that leads him to her own intense historical steps.
According to mythology, King Lycaon, whom Zeus angrily transformed into a Wolf, had fifty sons and a daughter, each of whom built a city in the area, naming it after him. Thus, Ypsos built the city of the same name, which had developed into a great Kefalochori or Chora as it was called, with a separate intellectual, artistic and economic development.
When a plague broke out in the Peloponnese in 746 AD, the Emperor of Constantinople, Constantine V, decided to allow the peaceful displacement of Slavs from the northern regions of the Peloponnese. The area is renamed Stemnitsa, as Stemnitsa means wooded and shady place in Slavic.
Due to its particularly steep position, during the Turkish occupation, several families of prominent Greeks resorted to it, as a result of which it developed into one of the most important commercial and craft centers of the Peloponnese.
The bells of Stemnitsa are known all over the world, as the art of the bell flourishes as well as the arts of making candlesticks, silversmithing and goldsmithing.
Arriving in the years of the Revolution, Stemnitsa is inextricably linked to one of the greatest figures of the struggle, Theodoros Kolokotronis, who moves his business center there, finding solace in the “mullet of Moria” as he calls it, after his loss adored son.
With the start of the struggle, the people of Stemnitsa are ready for their first battle, with strong names of chiefs, where under the orders of Kolokotronis, they participate on March 25 in the siege of the Turks in the plain of Karytaina, while two months later elected by the Assembly of the Kaltezes as the seat of the First Peloponnesian Senate and the first informal capital of the revolted Greek nation for a month, passing forever in the forefront of history.
So built on the ruins of ancient Ypsos, Stemnitsa is now a popular tourist destination throughout the year. She enchants with her unadulterated character, she charms with her personality, she magnetizes the eyes and seduces the visitor in other paths, but above all she deserves it for what it really is …
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