Kastoria, Greece
From Pella I took the toll expressway west and then
northwest for a few hours to a small city named in northwest Greece not far
from the Albanian border named Kastoria. These toll roads that go through
tunnels are well worth the cost, saving hours of travel time relative to two
lane mountain roads. And the terrain I crossed was very mountainous. I liked the fact that there were signs on the
highway for Korce in Albania only 70 kms away. It felt almost like coming full
circle since I had just been there at the end of April. I chose Kastoria mostly as a night stop
because of its situation to the east of the main range of the Pindos Mountains
which I’d cross the next day to Vikos Gorge.
Nevertheless, Kastoria has some real appeal as a
destination. With its lakeside location
and moderate 2,300 foot-elevation, one might expect it to be cooler, but that
was not the case. Old black-and-white
photographs from more than a century ago in my hotel, though, show a frozen
lake with people skating on it. Built
mostly on the hilly isthmus of a peninsula protruding into Lake Orestiada,
Kastoria looks very beautiful from the distance. For most of the city that’s somewhat less the
case close up. The one exception is the beautiful
Doltso neighborhood surrounding Doltso Square where there are several small churches
and museums and most of the buildings are large mansions in the old
Ottoman/Balkan style that I’ve seen in neighboring countries like Albania and
North Macedonia. Besides it large number
of small Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches, Kastoria’s main attraction is
its Byzantine Museum housing over 400 icons, some nearly a thousand years old.
2025-05-23