Abstract:
The mountainous regions of Greece have long faced challenges, such as geographical isolation, population decline, and limited capacity for economic management, making the development of sustainable development practices both necessary and essential. Within this context, the cultural heritage and cultural assets of each area can play a significant and crucial role in developing tourism and strengthening the resilience of mountainous destinations.
This paper focuses on lesser-known, non-iconic post-Byzantine monastic centers beyond established pilgrimage and tourist routes, drawing on examples from the Greek context, highlighting their role as nodes of spiritual networking and cultural identity in remote areas. Through the lens of resilience, it explores how appropriate conservation and soft promotion strategies can support sustainable development while respecting the religious, historical, artistic, and spiritual values of these sites. Particular emphasis is placed on their capacity to withstand contemporary challenges, such as crises and overtourism, ensuring their long-term continuity.
The Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos of Voutsa, in Greveniti village of Zagori (Epirus, Greece), as well as its dependencies (metochia) constitute a historical, religious, and cultural core, a network of monastic institutions. These monasteries are not isolated monuments; rather, taken together, they form a unified sacred landscape, connected to the local societies and communities within which they were found and developed, as well as to their natural environment. At the same time, they constitute an integral part of the local cultural identity of these communities and part of their collective memory, as this network enabled the dissemination of ideas, practices, and values across geographically isolated units.
Based on historical, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, the study highlights the role of the monastic network as a mechanism for transmitting history and identity, while also demonstrating spatial coherence and organization in remote mountainous destinations. Additionally, it is argued that the promotion of sacred landscapes can contribute to the development of alternative forms of tourism, such as religious tourism, thereby strengthening and enhancing the sustainability and resilience of destinations. The study places primary emphasis on soft and low-impact forms of tourism, which will approach the monuments with respect for local communities and for all the values—religious, cultural, and social—that they have embodied over the centuries.
Keywords: monastic centers, spiritual networks, Post-Byzantine monuments, sustainability, alternative tourism
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