Welcome to South Kynouria, the red-rock capital of Tsakonia
Leonidio sits beneath an enormous red climbing rock, the capital of Tsakonia and home to the Tsakonian dialect — a language descended directly from ancient Doric Greek, still spoken in the villages of this corner of Arcadia. This is the wildest, most southeastern reach of the region, where Parnon finally drops to the Myrtoan Sea.
Fourteen kilometres up the road to Kosmas, the monastery of Panagia Elonas clings to a vertical red cliff face in the Dafnon gorge, founded in the early 16th century, its current church built in 1809. From a distance it looks less built than grown out of the rock itself.
North along the coast, Tyros keeps the quieter, older character of a small naval town, caught between the mountains and the sea, nineteen kilometres from Leonidio.
Staying in South Kynouria means red rock above you and open sea below — two landscapes that most of Arcadia never touches at all.
Handpicked accommodations around South Kynouria
Don’t miss
- Leonidio’s red rock — the climbing wall towering over the old Tsakonian town.
- Moni Elonas — a 16th-century monastery built into a vertical cliff on the road to Kosmas.
- Tyros — a quiet old naval town on the coast, between Parnon and the sea.
- The Tsakonian dialect — a living descendant of ancient Doric Greek, still spoken here.
