THE STONE BRIDGES OF THE ZAGORI

Long before roads were built here, the 46 villages of this mountainous region were connected by shepherds’ paths, stone steps and bridges spanning streams, rivers and torrents. In the 18th and 19th centuries, bridges of local schist rock were built to replace the wooden originals – and named after the benefactor who financed them.

They came in all sizes – single, double and even triple-arched – but all had a distinctive steep hump, low side walls (dangerous for pedestrians in fierce winds) and lateral stone struts to prevent pack animals slipping beneath their loads. These bridges not only provided access to pastures and the water mills where wheat was ground, but to trade routes connecting local merchants to markets beyond the Zagori – key to the region’s social, economic and cultural growth.

Building these structures was lucrative work for master masons. They came from the nearby Mastorohoria of Epirus, travelling in family groups that worked as a team. The least able members carried the stones, the brightest cut them, and everyone else worked on the construction, securing the stones with a mortar-like mixture of sand, egg-white and goat hair, and communicating in code to protect the secrets of their craft from onlookers. The most important element was the keystone, cut and placed only by the “chief technician” who had also designed the bridge. Legend has it that he would stand beneath the completed arch when the wooden frame was removed, to show confidence in its integrity.

Some 108 bridges still stand in the Zagori. One of the most impressive is the 184ft-long, three-arched bridge beneath Kipi, which was begun in 1814. Initially financed by a monk, it was destroyed by a flood and rebuilt by a Mr Plakidas, after whom it is now named.