By Nicolas Bard

About 27 kilometers outside the city of Ioannina is the picturesque village of Zitsa, known for its famous wine.

Zitsa is built at an altitude of 680 meters and has about 450 permanent residents. It was founded at the end of the Middle Ages, probably shortly before or after the beginning of the 15th century. The first reference to it is made in the time of Ioannina, in events of the year 1382, but it is not clear from contexts whether it is a defensive position or already organized village.

Three theories have been formulated for its name. According to the local legend, the first resident of the village was a girl named Zoitsa, who found a source of running water there. Another theory argues that the word is Slavic and means “soul” but also “border”. Indeed, near Skopje, there is still a Serbian monastery with the same name today, where Stefanos Dusan, founder of the house that ruled the dominant of Epirus in the second half of the 14th century, was crowned. Finally, in Turkish we find the word ÅŸiÅŸa, which means “bottle” or “crab”.

The village was liberated with Ioannina in 1913 as part of the First Balkan War. Even today, it remains a village of the area, west of Ioannina, housing a large number of public services, while in 2010 the NMS installed a meteorological station there. It also houses the Vadice Library with a collection of about 3,000 volumes, as well as a Municipal Gallery. The latter is a creation of painter Costas Malamos (1913-2007), born in Alexandria, Egypt, but grew up in Zitsa. The artist donated his personal collection with works of contemporary Greek engraving.

Most of the villagers are involved in viticulture and livestock farming, and in the recent past they have also been involved in marble extraction. Policy and financial difficulties have in recent years pushed many people to look for a better tomorrow in other places, so the villages in the area are deserted. Schools are closing one after another, the houses are emptying and young people have no incentives to stay in their hometown. However, despite the difficulties, the residents of Zitsa decided to take the situation into their own hands and act so that they would not turn their village off the map.

So they created a group and began recording the empty houses of the village, so that in the second year they could show them to families interested in making a new start there. At the same time, they were trying to find new jobs, so they turned to the local industries, which embraced their vision. Today they are too close to move the first family to the village, and they have already found a job for one member, and the whole village will contribute financially to the first period of their relocation there. At the same time, gastronomic tourism actions bring visitors to the village, from Greece and abroad, and integrate it into the rising tourist destinations of Epirus.

Zitsa Ioannina sets a good example, which could be a role model for other Greek villages that are in danger of being deserted. The Greek province must remain alive and the state has to actively support their efforts for a better living. Certainly life in the village is not easy, but, as Zitsa shows us, it has some qualities that you can hardly find in the big cities …