Based on the excavations that took place in Sesklo, next to Pilion and in Dimini, the beginning of Pilion’s civilization is estimated in the middle of the 7th millennium b.C. The findings that are now exposed in the museum of Volos allow us to recreate several aspects of their culture, such as urban planning, ceremonies and burial rituals, social organisation, agriculture, farming and animal raising, invention of effective weapons, artistic concerns, impressive ceramic sculptures, figurines and jewel art.
During the Neolithic era, people were avoiding to settle in Pelion. Iolkos’ residents, skilful riders of the firm Thessalian horses, looked at Pelion’s slopes and cliffs only from a safety distance. Their imagination combined the real with the unreal and molded impressive and world fable in order to give an explanation to the mystery of the pathless forests, the foggy views that toppled over the slops, the thunderous noise of the storm and the rushing torrents. Filled with awe in the dense shades of the trees, they fleetingly distinguished the bas-relief of the horse body muscles and the lustfulness of the human person, fighting each other up to death, claiming the Woman.
On the other hand, the sweetness of the mountain in the summertime allowed the discovery of a variety of herbs and their effects. Hence, it was placed here, born and bred in the mountain, the wise healer and educator Centaur the “fairer of all Centaurs” Cheiron. Soon enough he was worshiped by the locals as a skillful surgeon and they named him father of Medicine.
Jason, demigod Achilles and Asclepius also chose to grow up in this area, reach manhood and learn from him the “Appropriate Ethos”.
Centaur Cheiron, Jason, Asclepius, Achilles, Pelias, Alkistis, Thetis, Argonauts, the Golden Fleece, Eris, the war of Troy, all began from Pelion and glowingly imprinted in the Greek Mythology their Wishes, their Distresses, the Force, the Insignificance, the Sovereignty, the Peace, the War, the Wealth, the Sacrifice, the Death, the Love, the past –present – future and the passions of Gods and Humans.
During the Byzantine years, the worship and immortality of ancient Gods offered its place to the pre-Christian Church. The Christians wanted to praise here, in the brilliant Pelion, the marvel of Creation and to open their own channels of communication with Sulphur, building impressive and holly monasteries with a unique view. The abbeys, built in the 15th century constitute a fundamental attribute of Pelion. Lots of people, either working in them or pushed by the insecurity of living, settled around them. In the 15th century the region was conquered by the Turks. However, the monasteries kept getting founded despite the Ottoman domination. Here the Turkish possession was not depressing. Citizens of Pelion enjoyed lots of privileges, the presence of Turks was negligible, and therefore the intellectual and cultural progress was rapid. The economy, particularly by the 17th century and onwards, boomed. Olives, fruits, leather industry and high production of silk were the main fields of people’s occupation. The goods were transferred by the “zagoriana” and “trikeriotika” ships and brought back wealth. Travelling and trading broadened the locals’ horizons and created new ideas. At this point of time Pelion became the most-populous region of Greece and enjoyed special administrative and tax arrangements. Many of the villages were named “vakoufia”, were self-governed and lower taxed by the Turks. An enormous and safe network of paths serving the neighbouring villages was constructed.
The paths grew to brilliant cobbled roads, while single arch stone bridges were built across Pelion connecting it with the port of Volos. This web of his paths that fortunately is entirely saved, still offers walks of inconceivable beauty and emotional uplift.
The architecture started blooming from the middle of 18th century and afterwards when the noble mansions of Pelion were built (many of them appear renovated in Vyzitsa).
Built with natural materials of the region and in complete harmony with the surroundings as well as the beauty of the landscape, they showed the imposition, the gravity and the decency, without reaching exaggerations.
Next to them, numerous stone built fountains, sometimes covered, provided the villages with crystal clean water. Each and every one of them has its own history and legend around it, but all of them were built with the donations offered by the wealthy local families.
The general prosperity also affected the folk art along with the architecture. Woodcarving, stone carving and painting began to adorn first the churches and then to embellish the affluent mansions and the towers.
Intellectual forms found here a new source of enlightenment and national awakening. The residents of Eastern Pelion, tradesmen that were growing rich abroad, mainly in Egypt, returned in the mother country and offered part of their profits to ease poor compatriots. Patriots and benefactors founded libraries and Greek schools as well as famous faculty schools in Zagora and Milies. In the earlier years the commercial growth of place imposed the connection of Pelion with the Thessalian flatland.
In 1894 the imperial village of “Lechonia”, attracted the attention of Thessalian Railways and launched a line from Volos up to “Milies”, covering a way of inexperienced natural beauty and picturesqueness.
The Engineer Ebaristo de Kiriko, father of the painter Giorgio de Kiriko and the writer Alberto Sabinio de Kiriko, constructed the railway line connecting the city of Volos with the city of Larissa.
Up to the 2nd World War, the villages of Pelion maintained the dynamics of progress that had developed during the previous centuries. They were still rich in culture, education, trade, agriculture and social activities. The olive oil and and the fruit production, bloomed once again and gave another impulse to the economy. Zagora, Tsagarada, Makrinitsa, Portaria, St. Georgios become commercially active again.
However the next years were very difficult for the villages of Pelion. They would pay the price of their resistance against the German occupation. The electricity production systems were destroyed and a lot of villages were burnt to the ground.
And while time healed the wounds of conquerors, the wild civilian war that followed ruined dramatically the aspect of the region and caused deep social conflicts, destructions in mansions and imperial towers of the region and finally devastated the commercial and affluent chief order.
In 1954 strong earthquakes hit the region, followed by floods. One year later new earthquakes hit the region followed by floods once again. The abandonment was inevitable. The prosperous villages became “ghost villages”. Mansions collapsed. Few residents that were left, they barricaded themselves in their homes. The economy shrunk. Few mansions even if damaged, they still indicate the golden centuries of the divine and generous donation to the ground of Pelion.
However the situation changed afterwards. It’s not possible for a blessed place to stay wounded for long.
Pelion has the power hidden in its guts. It is molded and kneaded with its Gods. No one can resist to the Magnets of brain and soul. And the Magnets create this field, no one wants to escape from.