Workshop Location: Kerastari, Greece

The village of Kerastari is located almost precisely in the middle of the Peloponese (Southern part of mainland Greece). It is not marked in most maps. It is about 200 kms SW of Athens, near the provincial town of Tripolis, the main town (approx 30,000 people) in the ancient region of Arcadia. On a map the village is 4 km north of the main road connecting Tripolis and Megalopolis and the turnoff is at a distance of 22.5km from Tripolis and 10.5km from Megalopolis. It is also near (about 8 kms) the train station at Asea.

On the atlas map the village is at coordinates of 22.22 degrees (22 deg 13 mins) East longitude and 37.45 degrees (37 deg 27 mins) North latitude. It is at an elevation of about 1000 m above sea level. The sea is about 60 kms by road, almost in any direction. However, that is about 1-2 hours by car.

The population of the village has been greatly reduced due to the post-war migration to the bigger towns within Greece or to foreign countries like America, Canada and Australia. The current population is only around 50 people and many of the houses are empty and are used only as holiday homes.

The village is nestled at the base of a forested mountain (mainly oaks) and it is quite picturesque. In recent times, many of the village fields have not been cultivated and the whole area is rapidly becoming a forest.

There are a number of old churches and even the ruins of an old temple of Apollo on the top of the nearby mountain.

Venue

The workshop venue is the Kerastari Community Hall. It can accommodate functions for up to 80 people and workshop participation will be limited to this number. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged.

Maps

Various maps of Greece can be found on many places on the Web. Below are some maps from these sources for quick references. The original site links are also given, if anyone likes to explore further.

Map of Greece from the Univ Texas library archives.

Map of Peloponese from the Tsikaras Weather page.

Zoomed maps of Greece - Kerastari from the old Mapblast! database.

Map of Arcadia, courtesy of John Seiradakis.

Map of Tripolis or just the centre of town.

More details and many links on Tripolis are available on this link.

Photos

Some photos of the village and the workshop venue were taken in the period 2002-2007 and collections are posted below (in small and large formats). Some landscapes are in winter and the village will be much greener in early June.

Photos of the village (small) and large

Photos of the workshop venue (small) and large

Photos of Tasso's house in the village (small) and large

Links

 


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