However, there are also Temples that have been “hurt” by sacrileges, who removed dozens of icons – relics of Orthodoxy.
The great feast of Panagia on the fifteenth of August, the great religious monuments and the holy temples dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin, breathe life into the villages of Epirus.
In Zagori, people flock to churches and festivals. In Koukouli, Makrino, Visoko Kaloutas, historic Holy Temples, dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin, are celebrating. They are Temples that have been “hurt” by sacrileges, who removed dozens of icons – relics of Orthodoxy. Along with happy birthday and one more wish from the people of Zagoris, to see again in the Temples their sacred relics that were lost overnight.
One of the first images that the visitor sees in Koukouli is the imposing Church of the Dormition of the Virgin, next to an ancient plane tree, in the village square.
The setting is an architectural monument. The Church is a three-aisled basilica, like all the churches of the 18th century in the area of ​​central Zagori.
According to historical sources, there was an old Temple there without knowing the exact date of its construction. Surviving lintel bears the date 1620.
Another founding inscription states that the Church in its current form dates from 1788. Its interior is decorated with frescoes from 1796, the work of a painter Lazarus from Upper Sudena Zagori. In 1873, Hioniadite icon painters and painters also left their mark on the Temple.
Continuation of the Temple is a stone building, with fountains that gush cool water. It is a guest house, the “amelicus” where the Turkish tax collectors stayed. “Ameliko” bears this name, because “amelik” was the name of the tax imposed by the Ottomans.
In 2003, about 80 historical relics were stolen from the Holy Temple, most of them icons. Before three years had passed since the theft, 16 of the 80 images, located in galleries in London and Amsterdam, were returned. The relics were repatriated one day before August 15, 2007. Then, the news that the icons were returning to the church filled the residents of Koukouli with joy and hope. Today, a request, a desire and a request for the local community, is the identification of all the stolen relics and their return to where they belong.
In Makrino, the beautiful village of Eastern Zagori, located at an altitude of 1,000 meters in a green natural landscape, the homonymous Holy Monastery since 1700, celebrates August 15.
The Monastery dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin is a three-aisled basilica. Today he is a sharer of Voutsas Monastery. Its roof is wooden and covered with plates. The interior of the Church is painted with hagiographies, while its wood-carved iconostasis is impressive.
A building inscription, from 1792, testifies that the frescoes. it is the work of the painters Ioannis and Anastasiou Anagnosti from Kapesovo.
In November 2007, pilgrims grabbed 2 icons and other religious relics from the Temple. The two despotic icons, one depicting Christ Pantocrator and the other Panagia Portaitissa, dating from the 18th century, were located many years later in galleries abroad, as after their theft, they had been posted on Interpol’s wanted works of art platform. On October 5, 2021, they were delivered to the Consulate General of Greece in Dusseldorf, Germany.
In a high place, “visoko” according to the Slavic etymology of the word, the Monastery of the Dormition of the Virgin has stood for centuries, as an unshakable living witness of Orthodoxy, above the village of Kalouta.
At a distance of 3 kilometers from the village, on a small plateau, the Monastery of the Assumption of the Theotokos Visokos, according to an inscription at the main entrance of the church, was built in 1114 by the local ruler Michael. In the place of the Monastery, there was a settlement of the same name, as the point was a historical and spiritual center, a trade crossroads, a passage from Thessaly to Epirus and the ports of the Ionian and Adriatic.
The inscription on the catholicon also states that “it was renovated in 1787 by the respected abbot Constantios and that it was painted in 1818”. The Church is a single-aisled basilica, while in the monastery complex it is enclosed, surrounded on three sides by a high wall, which is also the exterior of the cells.
The roof of the Church is wooden, while its catholicon is decorated with frescoes both on the inner walls and on the outer ones protected by the loggia. According to the information we get from the founding inscription, “the temple was painted in 1818 by the Kapesovite Anastasios Anagnosti son of Oikonomou and the son of Georgios Tsepelovitis”.
In September 2005, pilgrims removed 12 icons from the iconostasis. The Baptism of Christ icon was spotted for sale in a London gallery in June 2017. With the intervention of the Embassy of Greece in London, the icon was withdrawn from the list of works for sale and repatriated in July 2020.
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