Paleo Mavronoros, an abandoned village in Epirus, has a long history of valiant resistance to tyrannical overlords had a unique beauty of its own.
Sometime between 1850 to 1860 a number of Greeks from the nearby villages of Glusta, Gardiki. Vorpetia and Tziouboukatika who were chafing under Turkish rule banded together and decided to build a new village.
Searching for a place that would be remote enough to protect them from the Turks they built a new village Paleo Mavronoros on the slopes of Cassidian mountain.
One of the first buildings constructed was the church of Saint George. The villagers' houses had two stories and were made sturdily of rock.
The new townspeople got on with their lives and lived peacefully until in 1912 the Turks attacked burning down the entire village.
But Mavronoros did not surrender, raising whatever means they had the villagers completely rebuilt their town just as it had been.
However, people began leaving the village for greener pastures during the creation of the Greek State.
Now the beautiful little stone village of Epirus is just a shell of its former self to remind us of the tenacity and determination of Greeks to live their lives in freedom.
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