Industrial Specialization
One cool thing we learned on our hike is the degree of industrial specialization distributed among the towns of central Arcadia.
Stemnitsa was a center of metal-work, from find-work like jewlery (there is still a school for jewlers in the town) to big stuff like church-bells. Neighboring Dimitsana, benefitting from the River Lousios, was a center for milling; there is a very cool Museum of Water-Power in the town, with working examples of different kinds of mills. Magouliana is the “Village of Wood-Cutters” and, up the road, Valtesiniko is the “Village of Wood-Workers.” Lagadia is the “Village of Stone-Workers.”
Dimitsana milled grain and pressed olives for oil, but if you are good at milling you can also mill gunpowder. With Stemnitsa providing locks and barrels for muskets, Dimitsana providing powder, and Valtetsiniko providing the “furniture” (the stock), central Arcadia was the “Arsenal of Greek Independence.”
