On our way to Nikopolis and Olympia first we stopped at Archaeological Site of Cassope (Αρχαιολογικός Χώρος Κασσώπης), which used to be an important city.
We checked out from the apartment at 11:00am and headed first to eat Breakfast (almost lunch!). We stopped at a restaurant called Lychnos Panorama, which had an amazing panoramic view of the sea!
We had food in there the previous night as well and it was very good octopus!





We arrived to Archaeological Site of Cassope at 1:30 pm. Finding the entrance was a bit tricky as it wasn’t marked properly. Google maps showed us the wrong location of the entrance and it was a little bit higher up the road. You need to turn here on a gravel road and go towards the gate. You can leave the car before gravel road or if you want to you can park next to the gate, not much parking places there though and quite narrow. We parked before the gravel road as our car was quite low (and the road was very uneven) and it is only couple of minutes walking. Also, we were the only visitors in the entire site! I guess because of the extreme heat (42°C). Entrance only €3 per adult.

Kassope or Cassope was an ancient Greek city in Epirus that was founded in the middle of the 4th century BC. It served as the capital of the Kassopaeans, a sub-tribe of the Thesprotians, and belonged to the Aetolian League. The city flourished in the 3rd century BC and had a well-designed street grid layout. Kassope minted its own coins and had large public buildings. However, it was destroyed by Roman forces in 168-167 BC and was eventually abandoned in 31 BC when the remaining inhabitants resettled to Nikopolis, the new capital of the region. Kassope is considered one of the best examples of a city built on a Hippodamian plan in Greece and occupies a scenic site overlooking the Ambracian Gulf.
Nowadays, not much what is left of Cassope, but it is definitely worth visiting and walk the ancient roads, even though you will be mostly surrounded just by stones.


The Little Theatre, or Odeon, or Bouleuterion
The little theater is located in the south-eastern part of the city (on the left, closer to the current entrance to the site). It was built around 3rd century BC and it seems it was carved out of natural rock, with structures of stone that was standing on top of it. It was capable to seat around 300-500 people and some say that even 2,500, but it seems a bit exaggerated. The Odeon had a roof with a stage size of 15.4 x 7.60 m. It was used for musical, literary and some political events.




According to one theory the Katagogion was a two storied ancient hotel (guest house) of size 33 x 30.3 m., with an atrium one side only one floor, so that it wouldn’t block the sun. Another theory states that it was probably some kind of shopping centre and a similar building was found in ancient Olympia. This building dates to around 400-350 BC. There was 31 bedrooms in the builidng, out of which 18 were on the ground floor and 13 on the upper floor. Some of the tiles of the ceramic roof have survived and it is believed they have been manufactured in neighbouring Amvrakia.


Ancient Theatre of Cassope (or the Great Theater of Cassope)

The great theater of the Cassope is up the hill on the north west side of Cassope site. It was built in the 3rd BC. It has eleven stairways dividing the theater into ten seating zones. This theater was able to seat approximately 5.000 – 6.000 people. This was the largest of the two theatres in the city. The smaller was called Conservatory. The theater was destroyed by time and rock slides, which one of them was as heavy as 30 tons and ended up in the middle of the secene.





