Visit to Beautiful Sopoto - Climb to Tartaris Peak
All of the villages in Kalavryta stand out with their traditional color, their architecture with the stone houses and paved squares, the wealth of Nature with plane trees, walnut trees, chestnut trees and firs, and the abundant crystal clear water that flows from the springs and ends in traditional stone fountains.
Sopoto (today Aroania) is one very beautiful mountain village that combines all of these appealing features. Built at 930 meters altitude in the foothills of Mount Tartaris (in the mountain range of Erymanthos), it was the birthplace (in 1785) of the martyred Saint Paul, patron saint of Tripoli. Until the 1970s, it was an important central town in the province of Kalavryta. Today it is one of the settlements that languish with the passage of time. It does still have a traditional guesthouse and a café-restaurant with very good service.
A very beautiful hiking experience in Sopoto is the ascent to the top of Tartaris (1430 meters). The 90 minute climb to its peak is strenuous but revitalizing. At the top we find the small church of Saint Panteleimon and the ruins of the church of the Assumption. On the current site of the church of Saint Panteleimon, according to tradition, lepers had been exiled, and then cured; in gratitude, they built the small church in honor of the saint (who was a doctor). At 1,400 meters altitude, just below the peak of Tartaris, we will find what remains of the Byzantine church of the Assumption. There was also a small 13th century Frankish castle here that oversaw the area.
