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The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

Open-Air Water Power Museum, Dimitsana, Arcadia / Central Peloponnese

By Desolation Road

July 13^th, 2020

Long before the flow of the industrial clothing, the packaged food and the various appliances swept the Greek countryside, all over the gorge of the Lucius River, in Arcadia of central Peloponnese, the villagers produced wheat and corn flour, processed the leather, or tanned their clothes using the power of running water.

The inhabitants of Dimitsana did all this work at their numerous watermills, but their city went down in history for producing gunpowder for the needs of the Greek revolution of 1821, against the Ottomans who occupied the area for almost four centuries. It was then that they stopped giving the Turks, in exchange for taxes, the raw nitre and sulfur they collected, and channeled it for the needs of their political struggle. In his memoirs, Theodoros Kolokotronis, head of irregular troops in the Peloponnese, wrote: "Gunpowder we had, Dimitzana made it. In order to continue the gunpowder production, we didn't take many Dimitzanites to the camp, we left them for this job".

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

Gunpowder was introduced by the Turks in the late 15th century, at their various battlefields of the Balkan Peninsula. First they used it in the bowls and muskets, and by the end of the 17th century in rifles with bayonets, and finally in cannons.

The production of gunpowder was a complicated process. It required not only experienced craftsmen, but also expensive facilities in places with rapid water flow for the operation of the gunpowder mill that grounded the raw material. Also, it was necessary for the area to have a large wood and coal production, to heat the cauldrons.

Only a handful of areas in the country met all these specifications, and the Kelafari of Agios Ioannis area near the town of Dimitsana was the main one. The locals, in fact, were among the few who had experience, having started the production of gunpowder from 1684 in their homes, with primitive means. The first gunpowder mills, the "twin mills of Lampardeoi", were built and operated there in 1710, on the initiative of the Metropolitan Ananias Lampardis, before the Ottomans destroyed them in 1767.

The plot against the Ottomans

During the last years before the ignition of the 1821 Greek Revolution, the merchant brothers Nikolaos and Spyridonas Spiliotopoulos, by providing all their personal money and collecting donations from others, renovated eleven older gunpowder mills. They risked their lives hiding the gunpowder reserves in their homes, as well as in the monasteries and caves of the area, in view of the rebellion.

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

Local disputes and disagreements, typical of post-Ottoman Greeks before the state was even formed, and ever since, led the secret to the ears of the Turks. However, by buying and misleading them, the Spiliotopoulos brothers escaped arrest. Things did not go as smoothly as that in February 1821, when the Turks heard the first rumors of the impending Greek uprising. They destroyed many gunpowder mills, and conducted a series of arrests and tortures - including Archbishop Theofilos, who was to die in his cell a few days before the area was liberated.

The Spiliotopoulos brothers were not among the arrested ones. The Turks, in order to start their own gunpowder production, sent seven arrested gunpowder craftsmen in Tripoli - but then the latter devised, at the risk of their lives, a genius plot: they produced defective gunpowder for the Ottomans, decisively contributing to the key battle of Valtetsi in May 1821. The Turks were devastated, as Dimitsana's craftsmen justified themselves by saying that gunpowder did not work because it was used while it was still wet.

When the uprising broke out, the Spiliotopoulos brothers increased their gunpowder mills to 14, and produced up to 14 okkas of gunpowder per day (1 turkishokka is the equivalent of 1.28 kg), as well as bullets and cartridges. Thus, Dimitsana was called the "gunpowder reservoir of the Nation".

The site of these old gunpowder mills has now been transformed into a magnificent and impeccably preserved museum, the Open-Air Water Power Museum of Dimitsana. Nestled in the dense nature and with the constant sound of running water, the museum not only explains the history of gunpowder construction in the area, but also digs the way of life of the people there before the industrial revolution came to stay.

The gunpowder mill in the museum is operating to this day, and at regular intervals a museum employee puts its deafening pistons (‘kopania’) into operation - as in the years of the Revolution, with the force of the flow of the crystal clear waters of the Lucius River.

Visiting the Open-Air Water Power Museum

The Open-Air Water Power Museum is located in Kelafari of Agios Ioannis, 2 kms after the city of Dimitsana in Arcadia, Central Peloponnese. It is open to the public every day (except Tuesdays and the days of the Greek national holidays), from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM during the Spring and Summer (or 5:00 PM during October 15-February). The ticket costs 3€, while at May 18th and the last weekend of September the entrance is free. You can call the museum for further details at +30.27950.31630 and +30.210.3256922 or send an email at piop@piraeusbank.gr.

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

The gunpowder mills of Dimitsana

Footnotes

Text & photography Copyright: Desolation Road 2019 / Adrian Jackson

FootNotes

Text & photography Copyright: Desolation Road 2019 / Adrian Jackson

© 2026 Desolation Road

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