Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
began here on 25 March 1821, when Bishop Germanos of Patra raised the Greek flag at
Moni Agias Lavras, 6km from town. Second, on 13 December 1943, in one of the worst
atrocities of WWII, the Nazis set fire to the town and massacred nearly all its male in-
habitants over the age of 15 (498 people) as punishment for resistance activity. The
hands of the old cathedral clock stand eternally at 2.34, the time the massacre began. The
event is solemnly and movingly recorded in the old schoolhouse, now a museum dedic-
ated to the memory of those killed both in this event and in the region (about 700 people
in total).
The area is said to have a unique blue butterfly species, found only in the area, and the
region is also becoming popular for birdwatchers.
Sights
Museum of the Kalavryta Holocaust
MUSEUM
( 26920 23646;
www.dmko.gr
; 1-5 Syngrou; admission €3; 9am-4pm Tue-Sun)
This ex-
traordinary museum should be a compulsory first stop for all visitors to the town. The
country's only Holocaust museum, it is a most powerful tribute to the memory of the es-
timated 700 people killed by the German army in the region during WWII, especially the
498 people who died in the 13 December 1943 slaughter. It's a dignified, understated, yet
extremely evocative account of the struggle between the occupying forces and partisan
fighters in the area, and the events running up to the massacre - an atrocity reported to be
partly put in motion by the partisans' execution of a group of German prisoners.
Whatever you do, don't pass by the videos on continuous loop dotted throughout the
exhibition. These are the accounts of surviving townspeople who escaped death, some
after being locked with their mothers in the schoolhouse (now the museum building), ap-
parently to be burned alive. The wall covered with pictures of the dead Kalavryta villa-
gers is an especially striking memorial.
Martyrs' Monument
MONUMENT
A huge white cross on a cypress-covered hillside just east of town marks the site of the
1943 massacre. Beneath this imposing monument is a poignant little shrine to the vic-
tims. It's signposted off Konstantinou.
Sleeping
Lodges are dotted outside the town; the town itself has few hotel options. Peak period
here is the ski season (November to April), when reservations are essential. Bookings are
