Image: Kastoria (4)

Description: The town of Kastoria was a great and pleasant surprise: a wonderful small town on a peninsula of a lake, with beautiful old othodox churches. Kastoria is Macedonia's most picturesque town. Built on the an isthmus on the shores of lake Orestiada and surrounded by mountains, it is a city of old neighbourhoods, narrow lanes, stately mansions and Byzantine churches. The city flourished, both culturally and economically, during the Turkish occupation, particularly in the 17th century. Later, large numbers of Jewish furriers came to the area because of the abundance of beavers. Unfortunately the beaver population was wiped out in the nineteenth century and the Jews not long after that during the Nazi occupation. Since that time, the people of Kastoria have dedicated themselves to working with furs and embroidery. Even today, the city boasts a large number of luxery fur and textile shops and factories. Kastoria has more than 70 Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches, dating from as far back as the 9th century up to the 19th. Most of them are as small as a family house and ttheir walls are filled with beautiful frescoes. Very typical is the architecture of the mansions, dating from the 18th and 19th century, usually three-story edifices with large windows, enclosed balconies and projecting 'sahnisia'. Their interiors are spacious and sumptuously decorated with woodcarving and wall paintings. After climing to the to of the village, we had a great dinner with lamb meat in a venue where the local people come for their (warm) lunch.
Title: Kastoria (4)
Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tijsb/3638514229/
Author: TijsB
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
License: CC BY-SA 2.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
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