Kalabaka

Kalabaka (Greek: Καλαμπάκα, Kalabáka, alternative transliteration Kalambaka) is a municipality in the Trikala regional unit, part of Thessaly in Greece. The population 11,841 (2001). The Meteora monasteries are located in the town. Kalabaka is the northwestern terminal of the old Thessaly Railways, now part of OSE. Kalabaka was voted as one of the most beautiful places in Greece by the Skai TV show I LOVE GR.

History

In 1995 an ancient tomb was found in Kalabaka dating from the 20th century BC. A Greek inscription on the wall of one of the town’s oldest churches (Saint John the Baptist) testifies to the existence of an ancient Greek settlement under the name Aiginion.

The town was built on the location of the ancient city of Aiginion. In the 10th century AD, it was known as Stagoi (Στάγοι), a Byzantine fortress and bishopric. Of its medieval monuments, only the cathedral, the Church of the Dormition, survives. It was a late 11th- or early 12th-century building, built on the remains of an earlier, late antique church. Relics of an ancient Greek temple – probably of god Apollo – have been incorporated in the wall of the town’s oldest and most renowned church, dedicated to Virgin Mary.