Pathways to Know and Sidetracks to Forget: Walking and the Montane Cultural Landscape of Zagori (Northwestern Greece)

The present essay addresses the different ways of walking in a cultural landscape as a tool to interpret its heritage. From the nineteenth-century travelers to the contemporary regional archaeological surveys, walking plays a crucial role in shaping our understanding of place. Past ways of walking archived in primary sources, contemporary interpretations of montane cultural landscapes, and the ways of walking in the present reveal different attitudes to heritage. This article investigates the region of Zagori in northwestern Greece as a case study to approach different walks, past and present, related both to remembering and forgetting, through the perspectives of dwelling, inhabiting, and gazing at the cultural landscape of Zagori.