As the ‘Spring spreads over the Greek land, the Pagan The term breathes again, bathed in light and colors. Spring in Pangaio It is an experience, an anthem in nature and the Renaissance. As the first warm rays of the sun embrace the slopes of the mountain, the landscape is transformed into a colorful canvas full of life and harmony that invites young and old to visit.
Living someone in Eastern Macedonia He feels rather privileged with many different options to be close to nature, especially after a difficult winter. Pangaio is such a destination, provocatively gorgeous and equally provocatively accessible to its peaks, making the visitor wonder how nature can be so close to man.
Spring in Pangaio are the towering beeches that, with their dense foliage, create impressive forests that are difficult to cross the sun’s races. They are the stupid plane trees on the edges of the road and on the slopes of the mountain. It is this deep glossy green color that reveals the life of nature that alternates with the red color of the fallen winter leaves all along the road and in the forests, creating amazing color contrasts.
Spring in Pangaio reveals a really mythical mountain, even bigger and impressive than it looks in winter, almost mysterious, as it would look in the eyes of a young child. At an altitude of 1,956 meters offers many options for nature actions and is an ideal place for those who love hiking in the forest.
With these supplies, the visitor can easily reach his peaks, the famous “Pilaf Tepe”, a Turkish word that means the top of the rice. And in listening to this word one can break out in laughter, but for the locals, this top always looks like an overturned bowl of rice. However, the modern Greek name of the peak is “egg”.
The other two peaks of Pangaio are “Eye” and “Trikorfo”. “Pilaf TEPE” is revealed to the visitor proud and strict at the same time, without any particular vegetation. At the last turns of the main road, fir raids seem magnificent and surprisingly the visitor can sometimes find that the snow here are still slow to melt.
Arriving at the headquarters of the homonymous municipality, Eleftheroupoli, 17 km west of Kavala, the car will follow the old national that passes through the mountain villages of Pagaios. Shortly after Akrovouni will follow the road to the forest village (reopening efforts in recent years). From there by car he will start the route until he reaches the famous Orpheus Valley.
The higher it rises, the deeper it enters the mountain, the more the images that alternate in front of the visitor’s eyes cause awe. Nature throughout its grandeur. The plain of Philippi spreads down the mountain. The sunshine and the pure atmosphere offer unique beauty images to the vastness of the horizon.
In the Orpheus Valley
The car will reach the Orpheus Valley. Here the senses are transformed. The visitor feels light, almost exhausted. The few remnants of the old ski resort testify to the growth that the mountain once had.
With a 4X4 jeep it will easily and quickly come very close to two of the three peaks of Pangaio. If he chooses to go to the “eye”, the highest peak, he will meet the old ERT broadcast antenna. Its operation was stopped in October 2015. Today, it stands imposing and remains a technological shell that has been looted many times. Along the route he will face the villages of Drama. After all, the mountain is a natural border between the two prefectures of Eastern Macedonia, Kavala and Drama.
The choice for the second peak, “Pilaf Tepe”, is even more impressive. The view on the side of Kavala will compensate you. When it is clean it is seen as the top of ‘Athos. The visitor sees the entire marine bay of Kavala in front of him, up to Thassos south and the Strimonian Gulf west. Even on foot, these routes, towards the two peaks, are not prohibitive, as the trails are particularly wide and walking for a loose hiking.
In the footsteps of the story of the mythical mountain
From the Valley of Orpheus the visitor will travel mentally to the centuries -old history of this beautiful mountain and will certainly wonder: what was the reason why for many centuries they have been crowded in Pangaio and the region of countless peoples and people? The answer is given by the lawyer, historian and researcher Theodoros Luberakis, who all these years loved, studied, walked and explored the mountain as few.
“It was not only the fertile land of the surrounding areas,” he notes in RES – EIA, “not even his big forests, which provided the famous, shipbuilding timber. It was mainly the treasures of the rich gold and silver mines, which existed on it and who had been named since antiquity. And it was also the renowned sanctuary of Bacchus, the god Dionysus, who was in one of his highest peaks and which the Satres had under their control. “
“The Bacchus of Pangaio,” he says, “had a woman as a” promosion “, that is, as Pythia. He had experienced priests, the “Prophets”, coming from the war sex of the Rhodope Machojo, who gave shape and conveyed to the faithful the incomprehensible oracles that God inspired to this woman, when she fell into their ecstasy.
“It has, therefore,,” continues Mr. Luberakis, “a huge, historical, archaeological and mythological interest of Pangaio. In all of the above we must include another important chapter of his story, which are the crafts or rock paintings – rock paintings. These are designs on the hard granite or hard limestone, which we find in the countryside, but in some rare cases and in caves. The rock paintings represent animals, humans, wildlife of the forest, for which our archaeological knowledge is few to this day. “
Traditional flavors, rest and culture in the mountain villages
On the way back by car, the journey to the beauties of Pagaios is worth continuing to the unique natural beauty and traditional Macedonian architecture mountain villages of Pagaios.
There, the visitor will walk in traditional settlements with stone mansions and cobblestone alleys, cross arched bridges made with pelvic stone, sit on paved squares with wells and will enjoy the dew of the plane trees in the summer. It can hike on the Mesoropi trail which allows access to rare beauty with small waterfalls and lakes. Mushethi, the rooms, Podochori, the apiary, the Platanopos, are some of the villages that are worthwhile. In each of them you will find beautiful corners.
Finally, in Kokkinochori, the birthplace of the popular folk singer Vasilis Kara, you can visit one of the most modern and best wineries in northern Greece where the famous Pagaios wine is produced and bottled. In the gardens, there is a visit to Theodoris Kokkinidis’ magnificent wax museum.
RES-EIA