Nerochori is built on top of a fertile hill and belongs to the local area of Paidochori. The village offers beautiful views towards the White Mountains and on a clear day Ida Mountains, other nearby villages and the surrounding green countryside. Historical facts about the village start around the 1800s and are related to the discovery of the religious icon of St Marina.

In the old days, opposite Nerochori, in a rocky, arid and barren land, there was a little hamlet called Koukiana, east of Nerochori. According to local stories, the villagers in Koukiana could often see a light shining in the night, in the area where Nerochori village is today. The villagers thought that it was a very strange phenomenon and when they investigated further they discovered that the light was coming from the religious icon of St Marina. The locals proclaimed it a miracle and the spot where the religious icon was found is where the church of St Marina stands today.

View from Nerochori

The villagers of Koukiana started building their houses around the church as the area there was fertile and it had water thus abandoning their old houses. That was how the village of Nerochori was established. The name given to the village is indicative of the water in the area as it means Water(nero)-village (chori).

The short history of the village coincides with the Turkish occupation and the fierce struggle that took place in the greater area to overthrow the Turkish rule.

The villagers of Nerochori participated in the revolutionary struggle after 1821. Their participation is verified by the fact of the invasion of Turkish troops in the village during a Sunday mass. The villagers managed to escape but the Turkish soldiers hung the local priest from a mulberry tree in Pigados for reprisals.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, two brave local priests, papa-Giorgis Mavrakakis (1821-1894) and papa-Christodoulos Daratsakis (1833-1912) encouraged the locals to participate in the revolutionary struggle against the Turks while at the same time kept at bay the Catholic Church that wanted to proselytise the local Orthodox Christians.

Archbishop Erineos Galanakis, born in Nerochori, is an eminent figure of the Greek Orthodox Church and the villagers are very proud of him and his work.

The village had 180 inhabitants (the most ever recorded in the village history) during the 1940s. Unfortunately, the civil war, that erupted in 1946 and lasted 3 years, wiped out a great number of locals when many were killed. The years following WWII and the civil war gave way to immigration both to other parts of Greece as well as abroad. The villagers who live in other parts of Greece and the world today are characterised by the love of their village and their never-ending contributions for its rejuvenation and survival.

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