A stream runs down from Metochi, a sandy beach opens onto the Pagasetic Gulf, and above the houses a hill still keeps the name Chortokastro. Horto is the little harbour of Argalasti, four kilometres south of it and 46 kilometres from Volos, and for forty years it has filled with music every summer.
Spalathra and the garden of the Venetians
The ancient city of Spalathra is placed in the area of Horto, most likely on Chortokastro hill, where the remains of the church of Agios Nikolaos also stand. Traces of early Christian churches survive in the village, and a single-nave church from the first post-Byzantine years is a listed monument.
Tradition says the Venetians, who brought their merchant ships here, called the place «Hortus», garden in Latin. Between the wars Horto lived its great era as the port from which the olives of inland south Pelion were shipped.
Music since 1984
Since 1984 Pia Chatzinikou has run an artistic and educational programme in Horto every summer, and in 1994 the non-profit «G. Angelinis – Pia Chatzinikou» Cultural Foundation was established. The Foundation has an indoor hall in an old olive warehouse and an open-air theatre in the olive grove, and runs workshops all summer, from choral singing to jazz.
The 42nd Horto Festival closes tomorrow, Saturday 24 October, at 18:00, in the «Giorgos Chatzinikos» hall, with piano trios: Beethoven and Brahms played by Maria Efstratiadi, Vanessa Athanasiou and Elli Filippou. Entry is 15 euros.
The village also has the Folklore Museum of the Angelinis Foundation, with household utensils, tools of everyday life, traditional costumes and old books.
What to do in Horto
Horto has three small beaches, calm for children, and old cobbled paths of south Pelion start from here. The Horto–Milina route is about three kilometres and takes around 45 minutes. You can also walk up towards Metochi or Paou.
Permanent residents are few, 85 in the 2021 census. In summer the village fills up, in autumn it quietens down. From Argalasti, the main town of south Pelion, you drive down to Horto in a few minutes, and the road continues along the Pagasetic Gulf to Milina.
