Kalampaka in the 19th century

The town of Kalampaka, built at the foot of the Meteora rocks, experienced significant and dramatic events throughout the 19th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the forces of Ali Pasha caused destruction and looting in many of the Meteora monasteries, such as the Monastery of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary and the Monastery of Saint Dimitrios. Kalampaka itself, which had strong ties with the armatoliki (local militia) of the Hasia and Pindus mountains, was also attacked several times, mainly in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. During the Thessalian uprising of 1854, the town was occupied by Greek revolutionaries under the leaders Christodoulos Chatzipetros and Petropoulakis. From May 1 to 10, 1854, a deadly battle took place in Kalampaka, in which about 500 Ottoman soldiers and an unknown number of Greek fighters were killed. The town was finally liberated on August 27, 1881, and became part of the Greek State, along with most of the rest of Thessaly. The so-called "unfortunate" Greco-Turkish war of 1897 was also such for Kalampaka, as the Ottomans retook it and advanced further south, reaching just outside Lamia. Eventually, the town returned to the Greek State in 1898. Pictured: Panoramic view of Kalambaka with the rocks of Meteora in the background in 1884. ©Municipal Photography Museum of Kalamaria ‘Christos Kalemkeris’.