Chrysovitsi

Chrysovitsi is built on the edge of a large internal plain, at the southern ends of Mt Maenalon. The region's rich forestry and agricultural resources attracted small rural hamlets, assembled later into a bigger settlement sometime between the 15th and 16th centuries. Already at the beginning of the 18th century, the village is mentioned in censuses and documents with its characteristic name, which refers to similar-sounding toponyms of Pindos mountain range.

Chrysovitsi is located on the old - and current - road from Tripoli to the southern entrance of Gortynia, through its main gate, Stemnitsa. The same road served and still serves the mountainous access to the area of Karytena, a road much shorter than the modern highway through Megalopolis.

At the same time, Chrysovitsi is located near the hidden villages-refuges of Arkoudorema and Libovisi and through them it communicates with the area of Piana, from where the easiest road from Mt Menalon hinderland to Tripoli passes. An old road station and inn, Chrysovitsi saw its influence decline with the development of the road network sometime in the third decade of the 20th century. Then and until 1970 the village was the center of the forest exploitation of Mainalo and for a long time hosted a model wood processing factory.

In the 21st century, Chrysovitsi is once again a road station, hosting recreation and catering infrastructure. The premises of the old wood factory have been converted into the Mt Menalon Forest History Museum, a theme that has already faded.

Chrysovitsi is a protected traditional settlement.

Text and photos by T. Adamakopoulos