Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Kamarina

It is not exactly known when the Agios Dimitrios monastery was founded. The interior of the church is filled with murals from 1816, as a sign on the west gate indicates. Another sign above the gate of the monastery mentions the date February 27, 1831. Presumably around that time the rest of the monastery complex was built. The monastery is located at the foot of Mount Zalongo, below the monument with the same name. There are still a couple of nuns living in the monastery. One of them welcomed us with the traditional “loukoumia” (oversweet candy).

The Monument of Zalongo - placed in 1961 - commemorates the so called ‘Dance of Zalongo’, referring to a mass suicide of women and children in 1803 during the Souli War. Ali Pasha, an Ottoman Albanian ruler who served as pasha of Epirus and the western parts of Thessaly and Greek Macedonia, wanted to finish once and for all with the Souliotes; the people of Souli who were creating problems for him and the Sultan. An agreement was signed, in which one part concerned the safe evacuation of women and children from Souli. But Ali Pasha failed to comply with the agreement and his troops attacked a group of Souliotes - among them women and children - in the mountains of Zalongo. It is said that the Souli women came closer to the edge of a terrifying cliff. In order to avoid capture, enslavement and humiliation, the women held hands and started singing and dancing (Dance of Zalongo) and threw their children off that cliff and then they jumped to their death themselves one by one. Despite the fact that some historians doubt wether there was an actual dance and song, the self-sacrifice of the Souli women in order not to fall in the hands of the Ottomans is indisputable. The Monument of Zalongo - made by sculptor George Zongolopoulos - is visible several hundred meters high upon the edge of Mount Zalongo's cliff above Agios Dimitrios Monastery (PiP1). The monument depicts six abstract dancing female figures of the Souliot women. It is 18 meters long and 13 meters high. The figures are made of reinforced concrete, lined with about 4.300 limestone blocks, 40x30x25 cm. The construction took six years. The Monument of Zalongo is accessible by climbing a rather steep stone paved path (PiP2) with more than 400 steps, which starts just behind the monastery. .