Welcome to the Dwelling Place of the Nymphs

Built at 1350 m. above sea level, far from the madding crowds, Nymfaio is surrounded by dense forests of beech and oak trees and meadow pastures. A protected traditional settlement at a breathtaking location, Nymfaio sits just a stone’s throw away from Lake Prespa, the highest tectonic lake in the Balkans (Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award) and the picturesque town of Kastoria, which boasts more than 70 Byzantine and postByzantine churches, dating from as far back as the 9th century.

The Nymphs, crafters of nature’s wild beauty, have chosen well…

The Aristocratic Village

Nymfaio knows how to create a fairy tale setting. Fireplaces, halls with high ceilings, embroidered rugs, dreamy four-poster beds, antiques, porcelain dinnerware and elegant furniture can all be found in Nymfaio’s guesthouses and grand mansions of the 1930s and earlier.

Such is Nymfaio’s aristocratic architecture that its dwelling houses are conspicuous for their solidity, elegance and spaciousness.

The Noble Patricians

They say there were one hundred goldsmith families in the village from the 17th to 19th centuries. They painstakingly forged silver and then gold through the night in their houses, throughout the long and harsh winters.

The smiths left the village in spring, and scattered to all parts of the enormous Ottoman Empire, from Constantinople to Belgrade and from Khartoum to Bucharest.

By the nineteenth century, a handful of them had become so rich that they had a considerable surplus of capital to invest on anything they perceived worthwhile, and so they embarked boldly, and to a great extend successfully, on trading in tobacco of superior quality. And so they began a new chapter in what can only be called Nymfaio’s fairy tale. For a hundred years or so, until the eve of second world war, the Nivestian tobacco merchants, with their colossal warehouses and the international range of their trading, were a name to conjure with. Their fame ran far and wide: to Constantinople, Xanthi, Thessaloniki, Cairo, Alexandria, Lausanne, Hamburg and Stockholm.

Nymfaio was destined to house some of the noblest and grandest manufacturers the country had ever seen.

In the lap of Nature

Nymphaio is situated at the boundary of two hydrological basins created by the rivers Axios and Aliakmonas.
To the south, lakes Zazari and Heimaditida play a vital role as Wildlife Refuges and important habitat for birdlife. Some 141 species of birds and 150 plant types have been recorded here.

In Nymphaio and the neighboring Agrapidia village, ARCTUROS operates Brown bear (Ursus arctos) and Wolf (Canis lupus) sanctuaries. Find out more about these wonderful creatures and how hard it is to reintegrate them in their natural environment.

Near the village, there are also two protected areas of the European Natura 2000 network.

Wine & Culinary paradise

Greece is world-renowned for its excellent and healthy cuisine and Greek wines reputation has been growing with leaps and bounds over the last years. Nymfaio is right at the heart of such a culinary paradise.

Traditional pies and homemade confits, along with the best Sparkling Wine the country produces and one of the best wineries in Europe, are just a few of the hidden gems the area has to offer.

The area also boasts some of the best taverns – restaurants in the country, where one can taste unique dishes, all made with locally sourced produce, and discover family recipes that have been passed word-of-mouth through generations.