Siátista

Siatista lies on a mountainside in western Macedonia. The settlement was once known as Kalyvia, a name found in the records of Zavordas Monastery. Under Ottoman rule, its merchants developed extensive links with central Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Commerce brought wealth to the town, supporting the construction of substantial houses and churches decorated with frescoes and icons. Some merchants settled abroad, while others returned and built mansions with painted rooms and coloured glass. In 1790, for example, the merchant Theodoros Dimitriou and his wife Afrati left Siatista for Zagreb, where he traded and raised a family. Their story illustrates the connections between a small upland community and the cities beyond the Balkans.