Agios Vasilios Beach, Kaparelli: The Seasonal Coastal Settlement 14km From Its Inland Village on the Boeotian Shore of the Alkyonides Gulf, Where Mount Helicon (Home of the Muses) Is the Backdrop and the 1981 Earthquake Is Still in Local Memory

Greece | Agios Vasilios | Kaparelli, Boeotia, Central Greece

Kaparelli was shaken by the great earthquake of the Alkyonides in 1981. The earthquake — magnitude 6.7, the most destructive in Greece since 1953, which collapsed the Aigosthena fortress towers covered in the Porto Germeno article — struck the Alkyonides Gulf region on 24 February 1981. The village of Kaparelli, 14 kilometres inland from its coastal settlement of Agios Vasilios, felt the full force of the seismic event that reshaped both the geology and the built environment of the gulf’s northern shore.

Forty-four years later, the small settlement of Agios Vasilios on the Boeotian shore of the Alkyonides Gulf is where Kaparelli residents and Athenians who have built summer cottages there come to swim. The settlement comes to life especially during the summer months, due to the many cottages. It is the port of Kaparelli — the coastal extension of an inland agricultural village that sits on the Boeotian plateau between Mount Cithaeron to the east and Mount Helicon to the northwest.

Mount Helicon (1,749 metres) is the mountain that Greek mythology designated as the home of the Muses — the nine goddesses of creative inspiration who presided over literature, music, science, and the arts. The Hippocrene spring on Helicon, struck open by the hoof of Pegasus, was the specific source of poetic inspiration that ancient poets invoked. Hesiod, the 8th-century BC poet who wrote the Theogony and the Works and Days, was a Boeotian shepherd on Helicon’s slopes. The mountain that provides the northern backdrop to the Alkyonides Gulf is the mountain that Hesiod walked and where the Muses gave him his poetic gift.

Getting There: 90 Minutes From Athens Via the Thebes Road, 14km Descent From Kaparelli, Free Parking at the Settlement

From Athens, take the road toward Thebes (via Elefsina or the A1 motorway). Pass through or near Thebes and follow signs for Livadeia and Kaparelli. From Kaparelli village, descend the 14km winding road to the coast. The total journey from Athens is approximately 90 minutes and 130 kilometres.

The road from Kaparelli to Agios Vasilios offers the panoramic views of the Alkyonides Gulf that characterise all the mountain-descent approaches on this gulf — a version of the same vista seen from Porto Germeno’s Mount Pateras descent, from the Alkyonides Gulf’s eastern face rather than the western.

The Beach: Pebble, Pine Forest, Fish Tavernas, Canoeing, Clear Water, Seasonal Character

The beach at Agios Vasilios is pebble-covered, backed by pine trees, surrounded by greenery, with clear water. Lush greenery and pine trees surround this wonderful beach which has a lot of fish taverns, as well as opportunities for canoeing. It is one of the best beaches in the area, spacious and relatively uncrowded, shallow and good for families with kids. The seasonal character is the defining note: the settlement has summer cottages and the beach infrastructure — fish tavernas, canoeing — operates in season. In September and October the settlement returns to its near-empty state.

The Alkyonides Gulf water here has the specific qualities of the enclosed eastern Gulf of Corinth sub-bay: calm, cool relative to the open Ionian, and clear. The pebble seabed produces the transparency that the settlement’s visitors consistently praise. Water shoes are recommended for comfortable pebble entry.

The Alkyonides Islands: Daskalio, Prasonisi, Zoodochos Pigi, Fonias, Makronisos

The Alcyonides Islands (Kala Nisia — “Nice Islands” in local parlance) lie in the western end of the Alkyonides Gulf, between the Boeotian northern shore and the West Attica eastern shore. The islands — Daskalio, Prasonisi, Zoodochos Pigi, Fonias, and Makronisos — are visible from the northern shore. They are uninhabited. The name of the gulf comes from the Alcyone of mythology — the daughter of Aeolus, who was turned into a kingfisher bird (alkyon) — a name carried by a group of islands and a gulf for over two millennia.

The 1981 Alkyonides earthquake takes its name from these islands because the epicentre was beneath the gulf near the island group.

Boeotia: Thebes, the Sacred Band, Plataea, Hesiod, Pindar

Boeotia is one of the most historically dense regions in Greece. Thebes — 40 kilometres northeast of Kaparelli — was the city of Oedipus, the birthplace of Heracles, the site of the Seven Against Thebes and the Epigoni, and the city whose Sacred Band (150 pairs of male lovers, a specific military formation) defeated Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC and ended Spartan supremacy. Pindar, the greatest lyric poet of antiquity, was Boeotian. Hesiod was Boeotian. Plutarch was Boeotian. The region’s cultural and military contribution to Greek history is disproportionate to its modest modern profile.

Plataea — where the combined Greek forces defeated the Persian army in 479 BC in the battle that ended the Persian Wars — is in Boeotia, 25 kilometres north of the Alkyonides Gulf coast.

Porto Germeno Beach Greece and Prosili Beach Porto Germeno Greece are on the opposite (West Attica) shore of the same gulf, both below the Aigosthena fortress. The Alkyonides Gulf is small enough — 20 to 25 kilometres across — that the Porto Germeno cliffs are visible from the Boeotian shore on clear days.

Agios Vasilios Beach near Kaparelli on the Boeotian shore of the Alkyonides Gulf is the seasonal coastal settlement 14km from its inland village — pebble, pine trees, fish tavernas, canoeing, clear calm gulf water, the Alcyonides Islands offshore, Mount Helicon (home of the Muses, Hesiod’s mountain) as the northern backdrop, the 1981 Alkyonides earthquake in local memory at Kaparelli, 90 minutes from Athens via the Thebes road and the 14km descent from the village.

Drive from Athens via Thebes. Descend from Kaparelli. Order the fish at the taverna on the water.