The Hagiotopia Tours
There is a Greece to be discovered beyond the great temples, ancient citadels and postcard-perfect landscapes. A more secret Greece, shaped by the centuries, where stones still preserve the memory of empires, beliefs, travellers and peoples who have succeeded one another on this land.
For more than a century, Greece has attracted European travellers with the richness of its heritage. Yet behind the splendour of Antiquity unfolds an equally fascinating history: that of the Roman world, early Christianity, the Byzantine Empire, followed by Frankish, Venetian and Ottoman presence. These legacies overlap in cities, villages, churches, monasteries and fortresses, creating a cultural landscape of exceptional depth.
The historical and cultural tours offered throughout Greece invite travellers to explore this history from a different perspective. In the Peloponnese, Epirus and the Ionian Islands, a remarkable network of castles and fortifications tells the story of the centuries when the Mediterranean was at once a frontier, a crossroads and a space of exchange. Rising on hilltops and overlooking valleys or the sea, these Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian and Ottoman citadels offer countless windows onto the past. Once centres of power and defence, they were also places of commerce, encounters and movement.
Other itineraries follow the ancient routes that crossed Greece, such as the Via Egnatia, linking monuments, archaeological landscapes, traditional villages, museums and natural environments. Along these ancient roads, history ceases to be a succession of dates: it becomes a landscape to be travelled through and experienced.
The itinerary “In the Footsteps of the Apostle Paul” adds a spiritual dimension to this discovery. It leads to the places where the Apostle proclaimed Christianity and where some of the first Christian communities in Europe were established. Churches, ancient remains and Mediterranean landscapes bear witness to a decisive moment in the religious history of the continent.
These tours therefore offer another way to discover Greece: by following the traces left by those who inhabited it, travelled through it, defended it and loved it. From Antiquity through the Byzantine and post-Byzantine centuries, each itinerary reveals a different facet of a living heritage.
Because travelling through historical Greece is not simply about visiting monuments. It is about listening to what the stones, the roads and the landscapes still have to tell us.
