Kosmas
There as a piece of the Arcadian land that keeps the excellence of the mountain alive unaltered. That piece is Kosmas in Kynouria.
The route to arrive here, after Leonidio, between mountains and gorges, along the lips of amazing cliffs, creates an attractive impression and is a unique experience. The landscape all around is among the most authentic mountain landscapes offered by the Greek earth. The breath of courage and youth and the purity of simple life emanate from there, the solid tradition that has remained authentic and undestroyed in spite of so many adversities.
With its foundation above the sea, enclosed in the winter by thick banks of snow, open in the summer to the wind and the cool breeze, it turns these steep southeastern slopes of Parnon into a natural and human achievement.
And it is a human achievement, because very much patience and courage are needed for a town to flourish in times of difficult communication with the rest of the world among the mountains, enclosed by impassable cliffs and the rage of the windstorms.
Kosmas is a true jewel of Arcadia, on the high slopes of Parnon; it charms our mind with its magnetism and one cannot avoid it - but who would lose the opportunity to greet the stately lord high above at the magnificent elevation of 1150 meters.
The road is good and we quickly find the well-known Monastery of Elona opposite us. A national and ecclesiastic museum with countless unique treasures of art, piety, and gratitude.
For sworn lovers of nature like us, this path on the slopes of Parnon is a path of dreams. As we ascend, it takes us towards the heart of the giant and we lose the view of the sea below, and on the distant horizon, there is Kosmas ahead of us. Simple, accepting, and heartwarming...
This regal land has known glory and prosperity over the centuries, but even now there are many witnesses to its strength around the square and along the streets. However, before all this, the view of the sea from the square, in the distance below, is spectacular. The entire peninsula of Argolis and Spetses, Hydra, and the Argo-Saronic Gulf, in the haze of the great distance, enchant your mind, to the point that you wonder whether you are standing on land or you are levitating. is the world really so fantastic, or did our imagination break free and begin to create a world of its own arbitrarily?
This geographic location is a passage. It is what we call a point of transit. In our grandparents' days, when cars had not reached everywhere yet, people from the Southern Peloponnese came to the Monastery of Elona for their annual pilgrimage, ascending on their mules to the crossroads of Kosmas. From here the descent to Kynouria opens, to Argos, to Athens, which is 236 km away.