Zagorochoria Sarakatsani Shepfold Museum

Location: Tsepelovo

The Sarakatsani Shepfold Museum in Zagoria: The Sarakatsani people are a nomadic tribe with no permanent habitation. They are thought to be one of the purest Greek races, being apparently descendants of the original pastoral tribes of Homeric Greece. In our days, the Sarakatsani people form part of scattered communities distributed along the Epirus area. They gather every year on the first weekend of August in Gyftokampos, Central Zagoria, to celebrate their own festival.

Although a few of them are shepherds nowadays, this population still exists and they have created a museum as a living testimony of their tradition. Their museum was established in 1995 and it is an open-air folk museum with a total extension of 16 acres. It includes traditional wooden huts and storages in the mountains, which are used by the shepherds during spring and summer when they take their sheep to higher grazing grounds.

This is an ancient costume called Dhiava, followed nowadays by the Sarakatsani shepherds that still remain. In the interior of these huts, you can find traditional objects and utensils used by this tribe, now or in the past. The Sarakatsani Sheepfold Museum is on the slopes of Tymfi mountain, close to Tsepelovo village.