Muhtarina

The Muhtarina is a tumbledown Ottoman tower house, now reduced to poor ruins, standing on a low hill among olive groves on the northern shore of Lake Trichonis. Its origins are frustratingly vague: no construction date or original owner is recorded. The name may derive from “muhtar”, a Turkish title for a minor local official, or from a landowner of that name. What is known is that in the 19th century the property belonged to the monastery of Prousos in Evrytania, having been acquired from a Greek notable, Chatzopoulos, who had received it as a grant from Ali Pasha of Ioannina (1740-1822), whose sphere of influence covered the area. A local legend, unverified and probably false, attributes the mansion to Ali’s son, Muhtar, and adds tales of hidden treasure and Greek mistresses. The tower was likely built before the mid-18th century, when rural Ottoman towers were spreading across the landscape.