In October, on the roads around Zagora, the trees bend under their load. Red, yellow and green apples, in orchards terraced on the mountain slopes among the chestnuts. Zagora is the apple village of Pelion.
The village
Zagora is one of the largest villages on Pelion, on the north-eastern side of the mountain above the Aegean. It is not one village but a group of neighbourhoods, the mahalades, each with its own square and church. Agios Georgios, Agia Kyriaki, Perivoli and Agios Nikolaos together form a large settlement that can fill a whole day of walking.
The apples
Zagora Pelion apples have Protected Designation of Origin. Several varieties are grown, among them the firiki, an old local variety, small and fragrant. The altitude, the moisture from the sea and the cool nights give Zagora apples a crisp texture and an intense flavour.
The growers of the area have been organised in a cooperative for many decades, and their apples travel all over Greece.
Trade and learning
Under Ottoman rule, Zagora was one of the richest villages on Pelion. Its merchants had links with ports across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. That money built mansions, churches with carved wooden iconostases and one of the important Greek schools of the period, the Ellinomouseio, with a rich library. The library of Zagora still holds old books and manuscripts.
What to do
- Walk from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, square to square, stopping at coffee houses under the plane trees.
- Buy apples from a grower or from the cooperative, and apple spoon sweet.
- Go down to the sea at Horefto, the seaside village below Zagora, with a long beach.
Autumn is the best season: harvest, chestnuts, fewer people. And on a clear day the view from Zagora over the Aegean reaches the Sporades.
