The first time I saw the name Zalongo on the road sign during a trip to the city of Arta in 2016. At that moment, this name meant nothing to me, and as I learned later, I just drove past one of the most interesting historical sights of Greece. Last year I travelled around this beautiful country again and finally visited Zalongo.
Zalongo is a rocky mountain 700 meters high near the village of Camarina, in the regional unit of Preveza. In the times of the Ottoman Empire there was a monastery of the same name, where the souliotes, a small Greek people, took refuge. In December 1803, the monastery was attacked by Ottoman Albanian troops of Ali Pasha. After a two-day confrontation, the souliotes realized that they could not hold last longer. Dozens of souliote women chose death over captivity. According to legend, the women, having climbed the mountain, threw their children from the cliffs and jumped off after them. According to tradition, they did this one after the other while singing and dancing. This episode of the Souliote war was called the Dance of Zalongo.
In 1961, a grandiouse memorial monument of Zalongo was unveiled on the mountain. The monument is an abstract human figure and symbolizes the unbending spirit of souliote women.
Visiting the memorial is free of charge. However, you will need to climb a mountain. The climb to a height of about a 100 meters will take about 15 minutes.
The top of the mountain is reached by a cobbled lane offering breathtaking views of the surroundings of Zalongo.
Here is a view of the west coast of Greece and the Ionian Sea ...
... and the view of the mountains.
Here it is, the monument of Zalongo.
The construction of the monument began in 1954 and lasted almost seven years. The opening ceremony was held on June 10, 1961. Since then, a lot of people visit the memorial of Zalongo every year to pay tribute to the heroic souliote women.
At the base of the memorial is an inscription with the names of the people who contributed to its creation: sculptor George Zongolopoulos, architect Patroklos Karantinos and marble craftsman Eleftherio Giftopoulos.
Nowadays, the monument of Zalongo is the most popular attraction in the region.
If you are interested in this place, I recommend that you follow the links provided in this post. In those articles you will find a lot of information about the Souliotes and the history of the Zalongo Memorial.
@alexanderfluke's travels