Exploring Kalabaka

Spyridon Vlioras, Ta Meteora, 1577 (11.10.¹2024) 1, 7, 20–21

Observing that tourism in our region largely bypasses Kalabaka, and that much of the information about the town available online is inaccurate or distorted, this article proposes itineraries within the town, taking in monuments and places of historical, cultural, natural and other interest. It draws attention to the neglect of many of these sites and to the need to preserve them and make them better known, so that visitors can discover the town more fully and local residents can benefit in many ways.

This article¹ was prompted by two things.

The first was a number of recent reports stating that “Meteora was swamped with visitors”, before adding: “But what about Kalabaka? … The town of Kalabaka is unable to make the most of the large influx of tourists to the area. The challenge facing the municipal authorities of Meteora is to encourage tourists to spend as much time as possible in Kalabaka, making use of other destinations and attractions too, with obvious benefits for the local economy.”

The second was an initiative organised by the Municipality of Meteora entitled “Discovering the sights of my town”, as part of World Tourism Day. Pupils and teachers from local schools were invited to “become tourists in our town. The aim is for pupils to come to love our town and, at the same time, to become its ‘ambassadors’, helping to promote our region’s tourism offering.” Yet instead of exploring their own town, the pupils went —with the exception of one monument— on a tour outside it.

What follows proposes itineraries within Kalabaka, routes we have walked with our pupils on educational outings, stopping at places of greater or lesser interest to visitors. A complete tour of all the places of cultural, historical, natural and other interest within Kalabaka would take many hours —in practice, several days. Planning it depends on the means of transport (on foot, by car, motorbike or bicycle), where visitors are staying or starting from, and their particular interests: religious monuments, ancient, medieval or modern history, and so on.

We should mention here that we have often joined tours led by professional guides and others, and our experiences have been deeply disappointing. Although the tours are conducted with care, enthusiasm, affection for the subject and respect for the visitor, what is said seldom reflects historical truth. Unfounded historical narratives found online are often repeated uncritically, while the serious research of the many historians working on the region remains well hidden in publications that are difficult for the general public to access.

An itinerary

We begin in the town centre, where “during the excavation of foundations on the plot belonging to Apostolos Vlioras, at 49 Georgiou Kondyli Street, near Rigas Feraios Square, three cist graves came to light. One contained six spindle-shaped lekythoi and a funerary urn holding the cremated remains of the deceased.”² This brings us into contact with the town’s Hellenistic past and prompts us to consider where the walled ancient city of Aiginion stood, and where its cemetery lay outside the walls.

Walking uphill, we pass the stone house requisitioned during the Occupation to accommodate the Italian Carabinieri. A little further up, a huge ancient storage jar remains buried beneath the road to this day, another find from Hellenistic farmhouses outside the walls.

A short walk takes us inside the ancient walls and into the centre: the agora of Hellenistic Aiginion, the forum of Roman Æginium. An honorary inscription³ from ancient Aiginion, dedicated by the city of the Aiginieis to the emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla, dates to AD 199–210 and survives built into the wall of the church of Saint John the Baptist. Its text does not specify the reason for the honour; like similar inscriptions in other cities, it probably expresses the city’s loyalty to the Severan dynasty. Around it stood many public buildings —one of which later became the Konstantios School—, a public bath, numerous statues, some of whose bases still survive, and many manumission inscriptions from the Roman period. Some lie abandoned nearby, now worn and illegible, left to their fate through the indifference of those “responsible”.

Studies and our own experience tell us that foreign tourists and travellers are more interested in Greek and Roman antiquities than in those of the late Byzantine period. Yet we make no effort at all to bring this aspect of our town to their attention…

Here visitors can also see the small churches of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Barbara, with building phases dating to the late Byzantine and Ottoman periods, and numerous spolia —reused architectural fragments— incorporated into their walls.
Further north, the Konstantios School offers an opportunity to discuss education in Kalabaka under Ottoman rule and after liberation. The view of the monastery of Saint Stephen also calls for an account of its history and its spiritual and material ties with Kalabaka.⁴

Continuing uphill, we reach the plateau once dominated by the episcopal residence, until 18 October 1943, when Kalabaka was burned by the German occupation forces.⁵ Here, too, there is an opportunity to acquaint visitors with the events in detail. According to previously unknown evidence that we will shortly publish, the building had stood here since at least the mid-fourteenth century; after liberation from Turkish rule, it housed several of Kalabaka’s schools.

To the north stands the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Kalabaka, about which countless inaccuracies are repeated on guided tours. One example is the reference to the non-existent icon painter Kalonitis, who even appears in a recent, otherwise valuable book about the church! Apparently, very few have read the important study Redating the Basilica of Dormition,⁶ which rules out an Early Christian phase and provides the correct dates for all the monument’s phases, from the ninth–tenth centuries to the twentieth. Guides also seldom mention the exceptionally important spolia in its southern wall: inscriptions, figurines, religious paintings and other elements from the Hellenistic, Roman and later periods.

After hearing or reading something of the history of the nearby chapel of All Saints, visitors can learn the names of the towering rocks, and their etymologies, along with the history of the monasteries of the Holy Trinity, Kallistratos, the Holy Archangels, the Chains of the Apostle Peter and the Holy Apostles, on the rocks visible from Kalabaka.⁷

Continuing along the route, visitors will stop at the chapel jointly dedicated to Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony, whose interesting history goes back at least to the early sixteenth century, as a recent study shows.⁸

To the west lie the ruins of the mansion of Giannakis Kalabakas, the Ottoman-era local notable of Stagoi. Its history has recently been brought to light through our studies⁹ —something of which we are proud!—, the latest published in volumes 84 and 85 of Thessaliko Imerologio in 2024. Beside it stand the Kalabakas family’s private chapel of Saints Basil, Constantine and Helen, and various Hellenistic and Roman fortifications extending as far as Aglistra,¹⁰ where the north-western end of the walls of Aiginion and Stagoi terminated, together with other structures, such as the entirely unknown galeagra!

This spot and the neighbouring area, including the rocks of Kleftogiorgis and the ravine of the same name to the south, certainly lend themselves to recounting the great Battle of Kalabaka in 1854¹¹ and the uprising of Papa-Thymios Vlachavas,¹² since some of the fighting took place here.

The neighbouring rock of Arfantogiannis, meanwhile, takes us back to the fourteenth century and Theodoros Orphanoioannes, then the ruler of Stagoi: events and people whose rediscovery and recognition through our studies and research have given us immense satisfaction!¹³

At the Museum of Digital Representation, visitors can of course watch documentaries about places of interest in and around Kalabaka. Dedicated computer stations to be installed in the museum would also allow them to read or watch, on their own, whatever interests them about the region’s history and monuments.

The tour can continue towards Nichoria and Dafni Hill, where Turkish forces camped in 1854, or towards the Hill of the Prophet Elijah, from which we can survey the surrounding area and identify various places of interest.¹⁴

At the foot of Dafni Hill, we can admire “Kalabaka’s Xenia Hotel,¹⁵ regarded as one of Aris Konstantinidis’s most important works, and perhaps the most important work of twentieth-century Greek architecture. It is a powerful landmark for Kalabaka.” Unfortunately, it has been abandoned and is falling into ruin, although its grounds have recently been restored.

(Our frequent, deliberate repetition of the word unfortunately reflects our disappointment at the neglect of the monuments and the indifference towards making them better known…)

Further on, unfortunately now beneath the E65 motorway under construction, lies the medieval brick and tile kiln¹⁶ of the eleventh–twelfth centuries. In one of our studies, we linked it to the milling installations and nearby mill sites documented in 1163.¹⁷ One of Greece’s largest millraces also ran through here, powering dozens of watermills¹⁸ all the way to Trikala.

On this side, beside the old watermill, stands the memorial to the people of Kastraki executed by the occupying troops. A little further east is one of the tunnels opened in the early twentieth century for a railway connection between Thessaly and Macedonia, a project interrupted mainly because of the Second World War.

Further east stands the Hill of the Prophet Elijah, used in Hellenistic, Roman and medieval times to observe military movements along the foothills of Koziakas. There, south-west of the Pineios, ran the road from Epirus, and partly from Macedonia, into Thessaly. This is why the people of Aiginion built a guard post south-east of Diava, whose ruins survive. Phaloreia, an important pro-Macedonian city of the Hellenistic period, also had a guard and observation post, the ruins of which survive above the village of Vytoumas. This was during the same period in which the Athamanians of Amynandros were active on Koziakas and beyond.

It would be interesting to install weather-resistant information panels on the Hill of the Prophet Elijah, with photographs of these monuments and brief historical accounts. The same should be done at many, if not all, of the places of interest already mentioned and those that follow, to inform visitors.

Unfortunately, at the foot of the Hill of the Prophet Elijah, there is no memorial to the execution of the people of Vasiliki by the German occupation forces.

Continuing, we could pass the Fourth Primary School, for many years the base of the 42nd Brigade,¹⁹ which played a part both in the nation’s wars and —unfortunately— in the Civil War. During the latter, fighting also took place on nearby Pindou Street and elsewhere in the town. We could also visit the neoclassical “Lytaris house”, “designed by one of the engineers involved in building the Kalabaka–Ioannina road”.²⁰

Further south-east, between the handsome neoclassical Akropolis Hotel —built in 1896, ten years after the completion of Kalabaka railway station, and demolished without a second thought in 1996!— and the station, information could be provided about the site where “three tombs of the late second or early first century BC” were found in 1919.²¹ One bore the name Kletagora.²²

Further south, the buildings of Kalabaka railway station were designated as early as 1997, in Government Gazette no. 614 of 22 July 1997, as “protected historic monuments (…) together with the new and old engine sheds, the third engine shed, the staff dormitory building, the water tower and the turntable. (…) They are noteworthy and representative examples of late nineteenth-century architecture, built between 1881 and 1886 by the engineer Evaristo de Chirico, who, together with Theodoros Mavrogordatos, undertook the construction of the Thessaly Railway. They are also a landmark for local people, linked to historical memories, and are essential to the study of architectural history.”

We were delighted to learn that the people responsible for the Italian state foundation Giorgio e Isa de Chirico had read an earlier study of ours on the subject²³ and wished to help preserve and enhance the protected buildings, also approaching the Italian owners of Hellenic Train. Our own local authorities, however, remained entirely indifferent!

We feel similar sadness as we pass the abandoned State Timber Industry of Kalabaka, south-east of the station, and make our way towards the Early Iron Age tomb, dating to the tenth century BC, …buried beneath Syrou Street, its grave goods having vanished into another town. We should remember that everything ever found in Kalabaka in chance excavations —there have never been systematic ones, although the municipality and all of us ought to demand them— is kept outside the town or has …gone missing, instead of being gathered, as it should be, in a Diachronic Museum of Kalabaka!

In the nearby Parasporia area is Saïta, with its beautiful legend. Further south were the other watermills of Kalabaka, which have now disappeared, as has the chapel of Saint Menas: another area where fighting took place in 1854.

We then continue along Chatzipetrou²⁴ and Vlachava²⁵ streets, discussing the history of these two important figures and their contribution to the Greek national cause. We arrive at what used to be Kalabaka’s central square before the construction of the Cathedral of Saint Bessarion. Our thoughts turn to January 1943, when dozens of Kalabaka’s women and men were gathered there by the Italians to be executed, only to be saved by the Italian officer Fiorentino, who was in love with a local woman!²⁶

We descend towards the chapel of Saint Athanasios, with its various spolia, including a marble templon slab²⁷ from the first iconostasis of the Church of the Dormition. It came here after the earthquake of 1544, which brought down the church’s roof and necessitated extensive restoration and painting work, completed on 15 August 1573.

Passing along Sokratous Street, above the storage jar²⁸ buried in situ, where it was discovered, we await the opportunity to display it properly in a museum in Kalabaka. The same applies to the one on Ramou Street: both point to the existence of pottery workshops in ancient Aiginion. We then reach Kalabaka Lyceum, learn its history, and discover how the pre-war gymnasium building was converted into a secondary school and later a lyceum with the help of the Greek-American Kalabaka Benefit Society. Dedicated panels could display pre-war photographs of Pouliana, which received refugees at different times in history, first in tents and later in more permanent homes.

We should also mention our proposal to the competent authorities for the digitisation of the pupil registers of the Hellenic School, or Scholarchio, and subsequently the Gymnasium, and of other schools in Kalabaka and the villages of the Municipality of Meteora (1889–1950), as well as the male population registers of Kalabaka and those villages (1844–1950). These should be published as a book and a phone or tablet application, enabling today’s families to learn about their ancestors and scholars —historians, sociologists and others— to use the data in their research. Through these publications, our municipality would help make modern history better known while showing practical respect for the archival sources in its care.

North of the lyceum, beside the chapel of Saint Demetrios, the cemetery dating from the Civil War²⁹ offers an opportunity to pause and reflect on the tragic aspects and consequences of that conflict in our own region, especially the events of 12 August 1948 and the fighting in Kalabaka.

Our next stop could be Sopotos,³⁰ though not in its present condition. The fountain needs to be restored and enhanced, and architectural and aesthetic improvements to the surrounding buildings, streets and open spaces should make the area a jewel of Kalabaka. The other old fountains —at Pouliana, Platanos, the Justice of the Peace and Elies— should also be highlighted, so that younger people can understand what it means to live in a home without running water and have to carry it from the nearest fountain.

Our final stop could be the chapel of Saint George,³¹ whose inscription dates its earliest phase to 1571/72, during the episcopate of Ioasaf of Stagoi, the same bishop who had the Church of the Dormition painted in 1573. In 1798, the church was renovated by the children of Giannakis Kalabakas, the local notable of Stagoi.³² Significantly, the spolia in this small church also include an ancient tropeion, part of an olive press!

North-west of Saint George, the walls of Aiginion/Stagoi met the rocks, which is why numerous fortifications can be seen on them. The passage through Zonari was protected by a wall and a …kastraki, a small castle, in the present-day village of …Kastraki!

Epilogue

These are only a few of Kalabaka’s many places of interest, about which whole books could be written and documentaries made. Presenting them and telling their stories would benefit visitors and residents alike. Many residents, particularly younger generations, do not know this history or have a distorted impression of it, because the internet, on which they rely for information, abounds in inaccuracies and misrepresented facts.

Unfortunately, many of the places we have described have been left to their fate, at the mercy of the weather, antiquities traffickers, thieves and receivers of stolen goods —or of the worst danger of all: ignorance of their value and the neglect that follows.

Unfortunately, monuments more than two thousand years old are left to decay while we strive to promote much more recent ones outside the town. Our aim should instead be to bring people into Kalabaka and offer them things to do and places to visit within it, increasing overnight stays and bringing economic benefits to all its residents.

Naturally, similar routes of cultural, historical and other interest should radiate out towards the villages of the Municipality of Meteora, ensuring balanced development for all its settlements and their people.

At the same time, such initiatives would put pressure on the authorities to restore and enhance the region’s monuments: to finally open Theopetra Cave, our region’s most important monument in global terms, one of the few sites in the world continuously inhabited from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic; to repair Sarakina Bridge and care for all the municipality’s important old stone bridges, rather than allowing them to collapse, as unfortunately happened at Mokosi Bridge; and so on.

It would be worthwhile to create a phone or tablet application in the visitor’s own language. By entering preferences —time available, monuments from a particular period, whether Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman or modern, or interests such as religion or nature— visitors could consult a map and brief information on each monument, and explore the places they choose at their own pace.

Let us all, at last, learn the history and monuments of our region in depth, and work to share that knowledge reliably with visitors and travellers, Greek and foreign alike…

Footnotes

1. ¹. https://www.academia.edu/124466794.

2. ². «Αρχαιότητες και μνημεία κεντρικής και δυτικής Θεσσαλίας. Βυζαντινά και μεσαιωνικά μνημεία Θεσσαλίας», Αρχαιολογικόν Δελτίον (Β₂. Χρονικά), 29 (1973–1974, Αθήνα 1979) 572.

3. ³. Μαίρη–Ηλέκτρα Ζάχου–Κοντογιάννη, «Απελευθερωτικές επιγραφές Αιγινίου (Καλαμπάκας)», Εγνατία, 7 (2003) 30–31 & Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Αναθηματική επιγραφή των Αιγινιέων σε δύο Ρωμαίους Αυτοκράτορες, www.academia.edu/24977436, Καλαμπάκα ²2016.

4. ⁴. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Κωνστάντιος, ηγούμενος αγίου Στεφάνου Μετεώρων, www.academia.edu/37053972, Καλαμπάκα ²2018.

5. ⁵. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, «Ημέρα μνήμης και τιμής. Καλαμπάκα: Πυρπόληση (18 Οκτωβρίου 1943) – Απελευθέρωση (18 Οκτωβρίου 1944)», Τα Μετέωρα, 900 (21.10.2011) 16 & Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Αθηνά Νικολογιάννη, «1943–1944: πυρπόληση–απελευθέρωση Καλαμπάκας», Τα Μετέωρα, 1266 (26.10.2018) 25.

6. ⁶. “New evidence from recent restoration work and a careful study of the building revealed that an Early Christian structure never existed, and that the original building, with its mosaic floor, probably dates to the ninth–early tenth century. This Early Byzantine building survives to this day, with limited reconstruction and alterations in the eleventh–twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and the addition of the exonarthex in the eighteenth. The study (…) led to the conclusion that the iconostasis, ciborium and ambo form a single ensemble dating to around 1100.” Vasiliki Sythiakaki-Kritsimalli, Sotirios Voyadjis, “Redating the Basilica of Dormition, Kalabaka, Thessaly”, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 61 (2011) 195–228:195.

7. ⁷. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Μετεωρίτικες μονές: συμβολή στον απαιτούμενο και ευκταίο διάλογο, www.academia.edu/33262144, Καλαμπάκα ²2017.

8. ⁸. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Το παλαίφατο καλαμπακιώτικο ναΰδριο των αγίων Νικολάου και Αντωνίου: η σχέση του με τη μετεωρίτικη μονή Αγίου Νικολάου Αναπαυσά και η ιστορική του πορεία, www.academia.edu/109345570, Καλαμπάκα ²2024.

9. ⁹. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Γιαννάκης Σταθάκη Καλαμπάκας: νέα στοιχεία για έναν άγνωστο Καλαμπακιώτη κοτζάμπαση, www.academia.edu/115586059, Καλαμπάκα ²2024 & Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Αρχοντικό του Καλαμπάκα, Γιαννάκης Καλαμπάκας και επίγονοι. Η συμβολή των μελών της οικογένειας Καλαμπάκα στην ανακαίνιση και αγιογράφηση των ιερών ναών και ναϋδρίων της Καλαμπάκας, www.academia.edu/39768711, Καλαμπάκα ²2019.

10. ¹⁰. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Το μικροτοπωνύμιο–εδαφωνύμιο–βραχωνύμιο Αγλίστρα Καλαμπάκας, www.academia.edu/108074423, Καλαμπάκα ²2023.

11. ¹¹. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, «Η επανάσταση του 1854 στη Θεσσαλία και η μάχη της Καλαμπάκας», εφ. Τα Μετέωρα, 1557 (24.05.2024) 22–23, 1558 (31.05.2024) 21–22, 1559 (07.06.2024) 21, 1560 (14.06.2024) 21.

12. ¹². Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Παπα–Θύμιος Βλαχάβας: Η προδομένη επανάσταση, www.academia.edu/45674427, Καλαμπάκα ²2021, σελ. 195.

13. ¹³. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Από τον Ορφανοϊωάννη του 14ου αιώνα στον Αρφαντογιάννη τού σήμερα. Η “κεφαλή” Σταγών Θεόδωρος Ορφανοϊωάννης, www.academia.edu/87347191, Καλαμπάκα ²2022.

14. ¹⁴. Naturally, anyone who wishes can also visit these places at close quarters.

15. ¹⁵. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Ο αρχιτέκτονας Άρης Κωνσταντινίδης (επί τη ευκαιρία 110 ετών από τη γέννηση και 30 από τον θάνατό του) και το Ξενία Καλαμπάκας, www.academia.edu/123427924, Καλαμπάκα ²2023.

16. ¹⁶. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Ερωτήματα για την τύχη του μεσαιωνικού πλινθοκεραμοποιείου Καλαμπάκας, www.academia.edu/80852055, Καλαμπάκα 2022.

17. ¹⁷. “It was found that the bishopric possessed (…) two milling installations on the River Salavrias, and another mill site near those same installations, donated to the bishopric by Himerios Throumpis.” Δημήτριος Σοφιανός, Η Επισκοπή Σταγών. Σύντομο ιστορικό διάγραμμα, Καλαμπάκα 2004, p. 85.

18. ¹⁸. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Το λαγούμι / υπόγεια σήραγγα των κάστρων Τρίκκης και Σταγών(;), www.academia.edu/74536324, Καλαμπάκα ²2022 & Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Οι Σταγοί / Καλαμπάκα και τα Μετέωρα στην πρώιμη Τουρκοκρατία (κατάληψη / συνθηκολόγηση, νέο τοπωνύμιο, απογραφή 1454/55), www.academia.edu/88830042, Καλαμπάκα ³2022.

19. ¹⁹. There were many other military camps to the north and north-west.

20. ²⁰. Λάζαρος Αρσενίου, Καλαμπάκα: 3.000 χρόνια νεότητα, εκδ. Τα Μετέωρα, Καλαμπάκα 2015, σελ. 80–81.

21. ²¹. Stählin 2002 (Θεσσαλία), 222, υποσημείωση 82.

22. ²². “In one, the undecorated stele bearing the name Kletagora still survived. Around the skeletons were collected unpainted vessels, mainly spindle-shaped, nails, an axe, a spear and iron knives, a disc, rings, a bronze point and several bronze coins.” Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique (BCH), 44 (1920) 394.

23. ²³. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Ο μηχανικός Εβαρίστο ντε Κίρικο, ο ζωγράφος Τζιόρτζιο ντε Κίρικο, η Καλαμπάκα και τα Μετέωρα, www.academia.edu/3940273, Καλαμπάκα ²2019 & Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Το ιταλικό Ίδρυμα ντε Κίρικο και η Καλαμπάκα, www.academia.edu/39673178, Καλαμπάκα ²2019.

24. ²⁴. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Χριστόδουλος Χατζηπέτρος: ο πανταχού παρών βλάχος αγωνιστής, www.academia.edu/50963739, Καλαμπάκα ²2021.

25. ²⁵. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Παπα–Θύμιος Βλαχάβας: Η προδομένη επανάσταση, www.academia.edu/45674427, Καλαμπάκα ²2021, σελ. 195.

26. ²⁶. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, «Ημέρα μνήμης και τιμής. Καλαμπάκα: Πυρπόληση (18 Οκτωβρίου 1943) – Απελευθέρωση (18 Οκτωβρίου 1944)», Τα Μετέωρα, 900 (21.10.2011) 16 & Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Αθηνά Νικολογιάννη, «1943–1944: πυρπόληση–απελευθέρωση Καλαμπάκας», Τα Μετέωρα, 1266 (26.10.2018) 25.

27. ²⁷. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Το παλαίφατο καλαμπακιώτικο ναΰδριο των αγίων Νικολάου και Αντωνίου: η σχέση του με τη μετεωρίτικη μονή Αγίου Νικολάου Αναπαυσά και η ιστορική του πορεία, www.academia.edu/109345570, Καλαμπάκα ²2024.

28. ²⁸. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Ναΰδριο αγίου Αθανασίου Καλαμπάκας, www.academia.edu/3896768, Καλαμπάκα ²2019.

29. ²⁹. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, «Η περιπέτεια μιας ανήλικης Καλαμπακιώτισσας (1948–1949): βιβλιοπαρουσίαση», www.vlioras.gr, 17.03.2019.

30. ³⁰. Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Ναΰδριο αγίου Γεωργίου Σοποτού Καλαμπάκας, www.academia.edu/3896768, Καλαμπάκα ²2019.

31. ³¹. Ibid.

32. ³². Σπυρίδων Βλιώρας, Γιαννάκης Σταθάκη Καλαμπάκας: νέα στοιχεία για έναν άγνωστο Καλαμπακιώτη κοτζάμπαση, www.academia.edu/115586059, Καλαμπάκα ²2024 (≈Θεσσαλικό Ημερολόγιο, 85 (¹2024) 335–353 & 86 (¹2024) 305–319).