Karditsa

Karditsa is not a town that photographs well, and it is worth saying so plainly. It is a working agricultural centre, spread out and largely flat-roofed, on the lowest terrace of the Thessalian plain where it meets the Pindus. It is the largest town in western Thessaly and it is the commercial centre for a very productive piece of the plain.

What it does have is Lake Plastiras. Twenty kilometres west the road climbs into the Agrafa mountains and arrives at a fourteen-kilometre artificial reservoir, held at a thousand metres, ringed by forested slopes. It is the single best answer to the question of what to do from Karditsa, and it is close enough to go in an afternoon. The villages on the way up — Kerasia, Kryoneri, Megala Chania — are the mountain country that the plain town has as its hinterland.

The other reason to come is food. Karditsa sits in the middle of the Thessalian agricultural belt and the cooking here is plain cooking done well: grilled meats, pies, and the soft white cheeses that Thessaly produces better than anywhere else.

The plain Karditsa sits on was part of ancient Histiaeotis, one of the four districts of Thessaly, which Strabo notes was formerly called Doris. There is no ancient city of consequence here, no classical foundation tradition, and no basis for the elaborate legends that circulate in local tourism material. The town is modern.

It took shape in the Ottoman period as a market and administrative centre for the agricultural plain, and it grew with the cultivation of the plain itself — cotton later, and grain and rice around it. The occupation of Thessaly in 1941-3 and the destruction it brought was the worst period in the town's recent history.

Karditsa is known for its Carnival, which is one of the loudest winter events in Greece, with the Anastaireosis dance at its centre. It is a genuine and living tradition rather than a revived one, but it is organised by local associations and details of the programme change year to year, so check locally rather than relying on a fixed date.

The 2018 flood was the other defining modern event, when the Thessalian rivers came down and the town and much of the plain were underwater. The recovery was fast and is largely complete.

Karditsa is inland and the nearest coastline is a long way off, so do not come here expecting a swim at sea — but the mountains start almost immediately, and that is where the region puts its energy.

Lake Plastiras, about twenty kilometres west, is the headline: a long artificial reservoir at a thousand metres in the Agrafa, ringed by beech and pine, with organised beaches at the villages around it. Kerasia, Kryoneri and Megala Chania are the settlements on its shore. Further up the same road is Argithea, at roughly thirty-three kilometres, one of the properly restored mountain villages of Thessaly and a good place to eat.

Eastwards the road runs across the flat agricultural plain through Farkadona at about twenty-eight kilometres and on towards Volos and the coast. Meteora and Kalambaka are about forty-six kilometres west — close enough for a full day with an early start, and the obvious excursion.

The villages immediately around Karditsa — Karditsomagoula, Artesianou, Mavrika, Roussos, Palaioklisi — are not destinations but they are the everyday world of the town, and the soft local cheeses come from this agricultural belt.

Karditsa is agricultural country and the food follows the field, which means it is straightforward and consistently good rather than elaborate.

The local cheese is the thing to know about: Anevato, under protected designation since 1996, is a soft white cheese of the Thessalian plain, and it is the basis of a lot of the regional cooking. Grilled meats over charcoal and the pies baked in the bakeries are the everyday order. The plain gives the oil, the beans, the peppers and the fruit, and the cooking is closer to what the local agricultural economy produces than to any restaurant idea.

Eat in the town rather than on the arterial road out of it, and try the cheeses and the grilled meat before anything else. The mountain villages above are where the wild greens and the mountain cooking are.

April to June is the best time for Karditsa: the plain is green, the roads up to Plastiras and Argithea are open, and the temperature is right. September and October are excellent, and October is harvest. December to February is carnival season and the town has a genuine winter life. July and August are hot on the flat plain but perfectly pleasant up at the lake. The 2018 flood season warns that late summer can be difficult, and August is hot enough that the plain itself is best avoided at midday.

Karditsa is reached mainly by road, with the KTEL bus station on 56 Democratias Street running daily services to Athens, Larissa, Volos, Trikala and Thessaloniki. The town also has its own station on the Hellenic Train Palaiofarsalos-Kalambaka line, with changes at Palaiofarsalos for the Athens and Thessaloniki intercity services. Air arrivals use Nea Anchialos near Volos, the nearest commercial airport, which is also on the KTEL Karditsa-Volos route.

A car is worth having for the lake and the mountain villages, though buses go up to Plastiras. The lake is about half an hour's drive and the temperature up there is markedly cooler than on the plain — take something for the evening. Check carnival dates locally before planning around them. And if you are driving east to the coast for the day, allow more time than the map suggests.