South Karystia region

South Karystia is the geographical area of South Evia island, which includes Mesochoria villages, Stira, Karystos and Cavo d'Oro. The geographical borders of South Karystia region almost coincide with the administrative borders of the Kallikratic Karystos municipality, created from the merge of the previously existing municipalities of Stira, Marmari, Karystos and Kafireas.

Stira, Marmari and Karystos are the most populated small towns of South Karystia, whereas the villages of the interior country have been reduced population-wise. The traditional economy of South Karystia was based on animal herding, agriculture and fishing, but during the last decades the economy has orientated towards tourism, vacation-home renting and stone excavation.

Thanks to the isolation of the interior country-side, South Karystia has preserved many authentic cultural and natural elements. These features are intense in the villages of the east coast and specifically in the region of Cavo d'Oro, which is identified with the region of Ochi mountain. The wild natural landscape is combined with the many-centuries long history and the local arvanitiki tradition that offer the visitor a rich field of interesting things for exploration. (translator notice: 'arvanitiki': comes from Arvanites, populations that speak arvanitika, an Albanian dialect with intense influences from medieval Albanian language. Arvanites people descend from populations that migrated mainly in south and central Greece from the current 'North Epirus' region, during middle ages, specifically between 13th and 16th century).

The preservation of the natural and cultural wealth of the region is the big issue for the future of the area. Nowadays, South Karystia runs into a very large risk of losing it's rich natural inheritance on which tourist development depends. The installation of industrial wind parks as well as extensive fish-culture farms in North Evoikos gulf threatens the local natural environment of North Karystia with a damage on it's physiognomy and it's character, never met in the past.