There is an area of Greece that is little known and even less visited. Deep inland, cut off from the rest of the world by mountains, lies Agrafa.
Her name literally means "unwritten", because when Byzantine scribes first encountered this area, they considered it too remote to record on maps, marking it as agrapha - unexplored territory.
The Ottomans also considered the area too inaccessible to control, so Agrafa became one of the few areas in Greece that never fell under their control.
The Agrafiotes, the resilient, independent-minded inhabitants of this region, took advantage of this quasi-dependence to turn the country into a center of revolutionary activity.
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Legendary independence fighter Antonis Kacantonis was born here, and revolutionary leader Giorgos Karaiskakis used Agrafa as a base from which to terrorize Ottoman troops down in the plains.
An Ottoman garrison, retreating from the coastal town of Missolonghi in 1823, made an imprudent detour through Agrafa.
Disoriented by the unforgiving landscape of mountains, forests and ravines, they were ambushed by a group of 800 Greek fighters who wiped them all out near the village of Agios Vlasios in one of the most famous battles of the Greek Revolution.
The Ottomans never approached the area again.
A few years later, Agrafa became part of the newly independent Kingdom of Greece.
Not that independence has benefited Agra much.
The region remained poor and isolated, and at the end of the 19th century many Agrafiotes began to look for a better life elsewhere.
Some went to the plains, others to Athens.
Many sought their fortune in America, especially in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina.
"The first Agrafiot to emigrate to America somehow ended up there," explained Elisavet Papadopoulou, my host in the village of Agrafa Fragkista.
"He wrote to his friends in the village that it was a nice place with a lot of work, and then many more of them left.
"Now Charlotte has the largest Agrafiot community outside of Greece."
I arrived in Fragkista after a long and winding drive from the ski town of Karpenissi, which itself was a long and winding road from Athens.
There is so little flat land in Agrafa that many settlements are spread along the mountains, and Fragkista is actually two villages separated by a large ravine.
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I was in Anatolica (Eastern) Fragkista, while Ditiki (Western) Fragkista shimmered in the distance.
That evening at a local tavern, my attention was drawn to the table next to me where two older men were switching between Greek and American-accented English.
They introduced themselves as Konstantinos "Dino" Panourgias and his brother Evangelos "Van".
Dino, the older of the two, recently celebrated his 91st birthday.
"When I was younger, the school here had 70 students. All in one room!" said Dino.
"The winters were hard. We had no hearth, only a stove. Each student would bring a log to class to keep warm. There are no students now. The school was closed 20 years ago."
During World War II, the region fell to the Nazis, perhaps the first invaders ever to capture Agrafa.
"They must have followed the old shepherd's paths over the mountains," said Dino.
"When we saw them, we all ran to hide in the caves. They stayed for two days and then they burned the village."
But the local resistance movement was strong and Agrafa became the first place in Greece to break free from Nazi rule, proclaiming "Free Greece" from the mountains in August 1943.
But the worst is not over.
Before the war even ended, Greece descended into a vicious civil war between nationalists and communists.
The events that tore the country apart took place on a smaller scale in Agrafa.
Fragkista was no different.
Here, families turned against each other, and the isolation of the village meant that there was no escape from violence.
"I never met my father," Van swore.
"They killed him before I was born."
In 1951, twenty-one-year-old Dino traveled to Athens, where he caught a ship to New York, then immediately hopped on a train to—where else—Charlotte.
He worked there for several years before moving to Chicago and then to New York, where he opened his own restaurant.
Van and their mother joined him in 1963.
The brothers still live in New York, but return to spend summers in their old village.
This is heaven, they said.
The next day I drove further into the heart of Agrafa.
I passed through Ditiki Fragkista - "the classier part," mocked Papadopoulos - which was noticeably bigger and livelier than its eastern brother, with cafes full of working-age residents and even a school with a few students.
Further on, the landscape became more and more breathtaking.
Below the mountains of Agrafa (like the region, they were thought to be too remote to be named), I saw the three great rivers of Agrafa - Achel, Agrafiotis and Megdovas - cutting through the region like icy blue tendrils.
Endless fir forests descended into the distance, home to bears and wolves.
Vertical villages clung like bushes to the cliffs of the mountains, and their red roofs were woven into the green forest as if nature itself had renewed them.
"You feel like you're entering a different world," described journalist Nataša Blaciu.
"The World of Agraf."
At times the region looked almost alpine, and Agrafa was often described by locals as the "Switzerland of Greece".
Several luxury ski resorts surround the borders of Agrafa, although there are none in the region itself.
This is Agrafa after all - an uncharted land.
The official population census was not conducted here until the 11.000s (today there are only XNUMX inhabitants), electricity did not arrive until the XNUMXs, and many villages are still waiting for paved roads.
"This isolation has been both a blessing and a curse for Agrafa," said local resident Tomas Davarinos.
"The traditional way of life has been preserved, a paradise of flora and fauna, but this is also a difficult place to live.
"The winters are long and brutal and it's easy to get cut off."
A proud Agrafiot, Davarinos grew up in a house with eleven siblings and no electricity.
His parents were shepherds, one of the few sources of livelihood in these uncharted lands.
He spoke eloquently about Agrafa and the contradictions of its geography, both beautifully and hostilely.
Although he spent lucrative years working in Athens and the Greek islands, his heart always remained here in Agrafa.
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Ten years ago, he returned to found the Agrafe Mountaineering Society.
"There was nothing here. Nothing. Clip. Only mountains, forests and rivers," he smiled.
"So I had to start from scratch."
Working mostly alone, he began clearing the area around his village, Topolijana, on the western edge of Agrafa.
He began building trails, repairing climbing pegs and organizing kayaking trips and other activities.
At first, the locals thought he was crazy.
But then tourists started arriving, mostly well-to-do Athenians looking for something off the beaten track.
The Agrafe Mountaineering Society now has 200 members, including several experienced guides.
"I wanted to show that there is potential here for tourism," he told me.
"I wanted to put Agrafa on the map."
Back in Fragkista, Dino insisted on showing me the family home, an impressive stone villa not far from the village square.
I felt he did pretty well in America, but I didn't quite realize how well.
His house was full of photos of him posing with customers at his restaurant in New York.
There were photos of him with Greek-American powerhouses - Michael Dukakis, Telly Savalas, Aristotle Onassis - along with other famous figures of the New York scene - Rudolf Nureyev, Liberace, Zaza Gabor.
"We were the toast of Broadway," Dino laughed.
"Everybody used to come to my restaurant."
Despite their success, every year, for at least three months, they return to the place where they were born.
"I feel like I'm in the same village where I grew up," smiled Dino.
"It's smaller, the roads are better, but nothing else has changed. I still see all my old school friends here."
He also brings his family.
Although neither brother married nor had children, their sisters did, and the brothers were blessed with many nephews, nieces, grandsons and granddaughters.
"It's important not to lose touch with your roots," he said.
"I've been in the United States for seven decades, but I'll always be a boy from Agrafa."
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