Village · Tzoumerka
Vourgareli
The main village of the Tzoumerka, with stone houses, a Byzantine church of 1281 and a rich history.
Vourgareli is a village in the northeast of the Arta region, at about 900 metres on the slope of the Tzoumerka mountains. It is the seat of the municipality of Central Tzoumerka and of the Athamania municipal unit. In 2021 the community had 466 inhabitants.
What to see
The village's symbol is the Red Church, a Byzantine church built in 1281. Among the stone houses there is also the old Saint George Monastery, built at the beginning of the 18th century.
A little history
The village first appears in a Venetian document of 1696. In the late 18th century the Souliote chieftain Giorgos Botsaris and about 170 Souliote families settled here. After Arta joined Greece in 1881, the residents bought the local fief from its Turkish holder for 4,416 Ottoman liras. During the Resistance, the headquarters of the EDES guerrilla group was here. The Germans bombed the village on 5 May 1943.
Planning your visit
- Good for a meal or an overnight stay, as a base for the mountain.
- Bring comfortable shoes for the stone alleys.
See also
Photo credits
All photos are from Wikimedia Commons under the licences shown.
- Vourgareli village below the Tzoumerka: Mboesch, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- The Red Church in Vourgareli: N10705013, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons