History, Nature, Culture
There is something to see and discover here at all times of the year: you can learn about the history of the village during World War II, discover the stunning nature surrounding it by bike or on foot, enjoy the local delicacies in the village taverns.
How to find the village
The village belongs to the Municipality of Nikolaos Skoufas, Prefecture of Ipiros, and is 15.5 km (18min) away from Arta via EO Artas-Kommenou, 344 km (3hr 44min) from Athens, 150km (1hr 43min) from Patras via Ionia Odos/A5, 64.6 km (1 hr) from Preveza via EO Filippiadas-Prevezas and 72.5km (1hr 9min) from Aktion Airport via EO Filippiadas-Prevezas.
The one-way ticket for the bus from Arta costs 1.9 Euro.
The taxi from Arta costs approximately 20 Euro one-way.
Fascinating surrounding nature
The nature is abuntant to this part of Greece. In every season of the year there is a natural diversity to experience. Starting with the fields covered by olive and citrus trees and kiwis, to the river of Arachthos and then to the sea bird species inhabitating all year round many of the shores and waters. You can rent a bicycle in the square of the village and cycle around towards the the sea to have a view on flamingos, pelicans, moorhens, sea turtles, dolphins... the list is infinite. For this reason many biologists and sea turtle enthousiasts are attracted to this site.
Learn More
Accommodation
For availability of accommodation send an email to Amar Basic (greek/english/german) at amar.basic@respekt-fuer-griechenland.de.
While in Kommeno, you can have short trips with a boat, to see the most privileged part of the Ambracian gulf. Outside of Kommeno you can explore other nearby places such as Koprena or Koronisia and worderful villages like Menidi, Kompoti and Peta.
The Massacre of 16 August 1943
Just after the sunrise on 16th of August 1943, German soldiers surrounded the village of Kommeno, killed 317 civilians and destroyed most of the houses. Visitors from other places were also here because of a wedding ceremony and celebration that took place on the previous day. The local priest was the first victim but many others, among them women, children of various ages, the newly-married couple, had the same fate. People also tried to escape by passing the river but some drowned.
The Memorial in the square of Kommeno
The school after the 16th August 1943 massacre
Using local narrations from Kommeno, a digital audio artist created an audio walk which you can download in your smartphone and use it while walking around the village. Certain places within the village are marked as something significant happened there during the 16th of August 1943 massacre.
P.A.S Diagoras Kommenou 1943
The football team A.S. Diagoras Kommenou was founded in 1969, by residents of the village with the pioneers Demosthenes Kontogiannis, Georgios A. Pappas, Sotirios Kosmas, Efstathios Pappas, Konstantinos Tzourmanas (Sakkas) and Nikolaos Koliokotsis. Many good footballers of the time, from Kommeno and the surrounding villages, participated in the historic Diagoras. It was based at the Stadium of Kommeno.
Diagoras started to play in the League of the Union of Football Associations of Epirus, where it fought many battles with very good teams from Ioannina, Preveza, Lefkada and Igoumenitsa. After years and the collapse of Diagoras, the village gathered in a general meeting and decided in 2017 to create a new sports club with the name "P.A.S. Kommenou 1943" and colors red and black symbolizing the massacre of the village with the year 1943. Almost the whole village gathered and with signatures they started to create a statute and implement the project.
At the end of 2023 the association after an extraordinary general meeting, made an amendment to the statutes and now took its original name with the name "P.A.S. Diagoras Kommenou 1943", where it continues in the A' league and hopefully remains where it belongs.
About Us
This website is sponsored by Respekt für Griechenland e.V. https://respekt-für-griechenland.de and supported by the Kommeno Educational Association.
Respekt für Griechenland e.V. (RfG) is a non-profit association based in Berlin. By private donations RfG supports projects in Kommeno as well as in two other victim communities (Pente Ekklisies, Lingiades), because Germany paid only minimal compensations for the massacres on the civilian population and other war crimes. For RfG, unlike the German government, the reparations issue is not settled and not closed.
Website: Fotos by Amar Bašić. Content, design, management and implementation by Yorgos Anagnostopoulos. Ownership Kommeno Educational Association.