Tzanata

Tzanata
Τζανάτα
Location
Tzanata
Coordinates
Government
Country: Greece
Region: Ionian Islands
Regional unit: Kefalonia
Municipality: Kefalonia
Municipal unit: Eleios-Pronnoi
Population statistics (as of 2001)
Village
 - Population: 174
Other
Time zone: EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Elevation (center): 60 m (197 ft)
Postal: 280 86
Telephone: 26740

Tzanata (Greek: Τζανάτα) is a village in the Eleios-Pronnoi municipal unit in the southeast of Kefalonia, one of the Ionian Islands of Greece. It sits at the junction of the roads to Argostoli (36 km W), Sami (25 km N) and Poros (4 km E).

Along with the neighbouring villages of Agia Eirini and Kabitsata, it is situated in a fertile plain between the hill villages of Agios Giorgios and Pastra (W), Agios Nikolaos (N) and the port of Poros (E).

The village has a small school, community centre and community clinic; a sports stadium to serve the local area is slowly being completed. A mineral water spring (vrysi) fed from the ‘bottomless’ Avithos lake at Agios Nikolaos feeds a fountain in the plane tree sheltered plateia (square) where the village festivals, served by souvlaki stalls and the adjacent taverna, are held in the summer months. Water from the surrounding mountains also feeds two reservoirs just outside the village, one completed in 2005 to feed the burgeoning summer demands of nearby Skala.

In 1991 archaeologist Lazaros Kolonas, excavating in the Broutzi area of Tzanata, discovered a tholos (beehive) tomb from the Mycenaean period measuring 6.80 meters in diameter. Despite a claim that it's the burial place of Odysseus it is generally believed to be the tomb of later royalty, circa 1400 BC. Nevertheless, it is the most important historical find on Kefalonia (or Ithaca) to date. The site is signposted from the Tzanata-Poros road.

As the road to Poros enters the impressive Poros gorge there is a rough vehicular track leading 4.5 km up to the oldest monastery, and oldest surviving building, on Kefalonia, the Atros Monastery.

Contents

Transport

Served by the fairly reliable, but infrequent, ArgostoliPoros bus.

Car and motorcycle/scooter hire available in Poros

Nearest places

Population

Year Population
1991 193
2001 174

See also

External links

References