"I returned to Magouliana after many years of emigration in America. I am a nice, good-looking, smart businessman. I opened this department store consisting of a cafe, hotel, tavern and a barber's shop, at the same time". Jimmy Gontikas’ store is under a huge plane tree, which entirely covers the tiny square of the village. It is under the same plane tree where Theodoros Kolokotronis and his lieutenant Photis Chrysanthakopoulos, aka Photakos, who was born in Magouliana, used to make their plans for the Revolution of 1821, 200 years ago.

Point mark of the village

During the 50's and the 60's, the villagers would go to the cafe to eat sweets. Whenever the waiter opened a can of salted sardines, bought from the nearby  grocery, the whole place smelled very nice. They used to eat them with hand made bread and drink red wine, and they were all blissful. There, in an altitude of 1365 meters, everything seems to be delicious and in fact it is, especially the water, that runs out of the fountain, only a few meters away from the plane tree.

It is said that the village was once built lower in the "Burnt Land", near Saint John church. Then a shepherd saw a goat with its beard soaked with water and after following it he found himself in front of the fountain and the plane tree. So Magouliana was built around this spot. A few years ago the houses didn't have any faucets and women had to get up at three in the morning to go and wait in line in order to wash their woollen rugs and all their heavy clothes. They beat them with a mallet and the loud sound was heard all over the village.

The people of Magouliana tell a story about one of their ancestors, named Vrouvas, who used to wake up at two o' clock in the morning and beat with the mallet. As there were not any clocks back then, the women thought that it was time for them to wash the clothes and headed to the fountain in a rush. The woman who arrived first to the fountain came up against Vrouvas who apparently had an evil purpose.

A woman of the village told us, while she was laughing: "When night fell, tricky things used to take place at the fountain. Boys and girls went there in order to get water, but instead it was a meeting point for couples to meet up in order to make-out. It was much better back then, now both girls and boys have left the village. We used to be 2.900 people here and only 70 of us are left. Everyone left in the 60's and went to Athens and to America".

Walnut temple

Among the few people left in Magouliana is Theodore Kondylis, the priest, who is responsible for the operation of Dormition of the Mother of God church with its amazing walnut temple. "It was entirely made by Nick Moschos from Epirus during the years 1838 and 1845, using a gouge. He used the "colander's" method, creating gaps among the carvings. In order to undertake the job he competed with the Dinopoulos brothers, who were famous carvers from the nearby village Valtetsiniko. Each one of them put samples of their work into the fountain's water and the carvings that Moschos made never came off, because they were not glued, but carved on the body of the wood".
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

MORE PHOTOS

Dormition of the Mother of God church with its famous walnut temple.

Kolokotronis's first lieutenant, Photakos, was born in Magouliana.

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