Yesterday we were very disappointed by the Silversmith museum. I had read a number of write ups saying how good it was but yesterday we just saw a collection of 19th century silver, mostly religious. On returning to the hotel last night I re-read the Trip Advisor reviews and came to the conclusion we had visited an altogether different museum within the castle. Today we climbed back into the grounds of the keep and there, hidden behind a mound was the Silversmiths museum, it is pictured above so quite hard to miss but somehow we did.
The reviews were quite right, it is very good. A great deal of EU money has been spent on it, there are specially commissioned films showing each aspect of making silverware and many examples of the craftsman's work. We were there for almost two hours and were the only visitors, we had to pay today 2€ each today, not enough to cover the staff wages.
This plate is made out of silver wire which has been drawn out through dies and then two wires twisted together to create the mottled filigree effect.
Each swirl is individually made, we could not see anywhere which said how long one plate took to make but clearly it took ages.
We are now up in the Zagori National Park where we hope to do a bit of walking whilst avoiding any close encounters with brown bears or boars.
On the way here we passed the site of the famous battle of Kalamas where the Greek army gave the Italians a bloody nose in November 1941, the only Greek victory ever (Greece did not exist before 1821). The Germans took over the fight and invaded Greece a little later. The army have a small museum on the site with two very bored conscripts looking after it. In 1941 the Greek army had cavalry horses and were supported by an air-force flying bi-planes yet the Italians lost 12,000 men!