Historical story

The freezing of Pamvotida lake and Panagia Durahani

In addition to the weather forecast, at NEWS 24/7 on a daily basis we recall the most important events of the past in terms of weather conditions. The references are mainly made to remind us that some extremes are not only a feature of our time, but similar events happened in the past as well.

In today's weather article I remind you that as of today on 4/1/1978 we had total ice coverage of Lake Pamvotida with the possibility of walking on the ice. A phenomenon not so frequent but which occurs many times when we have cold invasions in our country.

A HISTORICAL ICE OF THE LAKE - PANAGIA DURACHANI

On the occasion of this event, let's take the train of history (which passes through Ioannina!) and remember an incident that is saved by the oral tradition of the region. In 1434, four years after the definitive submission of the Ioannina to the Turks, Durahan Pasha, Beylerbeis of Roumeli, crossed the Pindos in winter coming from Thessaly, to suppress a local rebellion in Epirus. The previous snowfall was heavy and the frost intense. He moved through Katara and Ioannina towards Argyrokastro, with the aim of suppressing the rebellion of the Albanian toparch Arianite Spata Komnenos. After passing the area of ​​Katara, he spent the night at the site of the present monastery and not knowing that he was in front of the frozen lake of Ioannina, the army crossed over the frozen waters and continued its march towards Argyrokastro.

After the successful outcome of the operation, Durahan, who in the meantime had been informed of the danger he had run in passing unknowingly with his army over the frozen Pamvotida, returning to Thessaly, ordered that a monastery dedicated to the Virgin be built, in the place where, descending from Drisco, he had encountered an iconostasis. The pasha, who according to tradition had Christian parents, believed that he and his army were saved thanks to the miraculous intervention of the Virgin Mary. Thus he founded the monastery of the same name, Panagia Durahani, in that place.

From reminiscences, recorded in various church books, the existence of the monastery is reliably confirmed at the beginning of the 19th century. Although it burned down completely in 1825, in 1830 it was rebuilt from the ground up and continued to function until 1933, the year in which the monastery was looted and its abbot murdered.

THE ICE OF THE LAKE OTHER YEARS

In older memories, general freezing of the lake is mentioned in the years 1540, 1687, 1700, 1864, 1869, and 1929/30. The Yiannioti poet and folklorist Dimitris Salamagas vividly describes the frost of 1930:"That day, no one had yet had the courage to step on the frozen mattress. But the next day, I looked up at the walkers, who were carelessly talking to each other in the water, as if they were frolicking in some square. And the bicycles, they counted in tens"

Similar frosts have been recorded in 1964, 1978, 2000 and 2006. The last time was in January 2017.

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