SITES OF SPECIAL INTEREST IN THE PERFECTURE
AGIOS IOANNIS
The suburb of Agios Ioannis lies some 2.5 kilometres to the east of Serres, and was incorporated into the municipality of Serres in 1946. The area is blessed with ancient plane trees and abundant flowing water and - now as then - during the summer months, the area is a favourite recreational spot for the people of Serres. The chronicler, Papasynadinos, had this to say about the area: "June 24, 1631.the weavers invited the high priest, the clerics, and the Patriarch's exarchs to Agios Ioannis, which pleased everyone a great deal.".
MOUNT MENOIKIOS- THE GORGE OF THE MONASTERY OF THE TIMIOS PRODROMOS
Mount Menoikios looms to the north-east of the city of Serres. Known for its turf, its ground cover, and its mysterious caves, the enchanting mountain scenery is dotted with shepherds' stone huts, and tanks to collect rain water. The landscape is intense, with jagged peaks, plunging gorges, sheer cliff faces, rocky ridges, and numerous karstic phenomena. The flora and fauna in the area is particularly varied. All in all, there are 72 significant groups of plants in the area.
THE FOREST OF LAILIA
A veritable paradise only 25 kilometres north of Serres! The forest of Lailia - 30 square kilometres of beech and forest pine - figures in thousands of traditions and folk tales in the area. The incredibly beautiful woods are home to a number of large mammals and birds, both rare and commonplace. The few remaining brown bears in Northern Greece find safety in its inaccessible northern reaches, while grouse and wild fowl nest in the safety of its towering pines. The forest's amazing wild life also includes deer, wild boar, otters, various predators and mountain partridges. The forest's flora is equally impressive: five species, five subspecies, five varieties, one morph, and one hybrid unknown to science anywhere else have been discovered and recorded here. In the very centre of the forest, the bog comprises a unique palaeobotanical museum which has been declared a protected Monument of Nature. A great deal of geological research has been carried out here; scientists now know how the forest has developed since the last Ice Age; what species have lived in it at different periods; and the effect man has had on the area. We can now be certain that there has been a forest here since around 2000 BC. The forest was initially made up of hazel and oak, but these have gradually been replaced by beech and forest pine.
A total of 515 species and sub-species of plants have been recorded in Lailia.
SIDIROKASTRO
The city of Sidirokastro is situated some 24 kilometres from Serres along the main road to Promachonas and the Bulgarian border. It is built on Isar Hill, on top of the ruins of the ancient city of Herakleia - built by Philip II - and has a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. You can still see sections of the old city walls built by Andronikos III Palaiologos between 1328 and 1341, as well as two towers, one central and one external, two gates, and a tower with a tank for fresh water in its basement. The church of Agios Dimitrios is built on the same hill; the church's sanctuary is actually the main chamber of a tomb carved out of solid rock during the Hellenistic Era and subsequently decorated with Byzantine frescoes.
THE KERKINI RESERVOIR
One of the most important, and at the same time beautiful, of Greece's wetlands lies some 45 kilometres west of the city of Serres. Human intervention has greatly affected the form of the wetland on at least two occasions over recent decades. Prior to the construction of the dam in 1932, the area was a swamp through which the River Strymona sometimes idled and occasionally raged, posing a threat to the life of the inhabitants of the area. Hydrophile trees, and areas of untouched countryside teeming with wild animals and birds made agricultural and construction activity impossible for local inhabitants. The construction of the dam in 1932 created a body of water which, following the completion of a second dam in 1982, varies seasonally in size between 54 and 72 square kilometres, and is doubly beneficial to the area: as a reservoir it plays an essential role in local agriculture; and as a wetland of international importance, recognised by the Ramsar Treaty, it provides habitat for thousands of water birds and waders. Unfortunately, the widely differing interests of these two groups of beneficiaries often leads to animosity. Higher water levels are desirable for farmers, but destroy nests or force birds to build new ones elsewhere. A rise in the water level of the reservoir also poses a threat to the forests of hydrophile trees surrounding it, which cannot produce seeds when waterlogged.
The loss of these trees means the loss of suitable nesting sites, which in turn makes it more difficult for the birds in the area to breed successfully. Despite these problems, it is a wonderful place with its three hundred plus species of rare and protected birds such as the Phalacrocorax carbo, the Egretta garzetta, the Anser anser, and the Accipiter brevipes; its dense riverside forests; the water lilies floating on the square kilometre after square kilometer of open water; the greatest variety of fish in the whole of Greece; all topped off by an amazingly beautiful horizon. The reservoir's main water source is the River Strymona, but the Kerkinitis brings its waters down from the Krousia, too. An automatic system is in place to control the amount of water released into both rivers, and to monitor the chemical make-up of the water. The Kerkini reservoir manages to contribute to the economy of the surrounding area in a number of ways without sacrificing its unique ecology.
ALISTRATI CAVE - AGGITI GORGE
A unique monument of nature can be found at a spot known as Petroto ("rocky"), some fifty kilometres east of Serres in the village of Alistrati - a cave of immense speleological importance. To date, some 25,000 square metres of the cave have been explored, revealing huge caverns bristling with stalagmites, stalactites, and columns. The cave is home to thousands of bats, while unique micro-organisms have been found in galleries within the cave that have never been encountered elsewhere. The immensity of some of the underground chambers, the sheer size and variety of the stalagmites and stalactites, along with the dazzlingly white stalactites in the two main galleries take your breath away. A little further down, the River Aggitis flows through the Aggiti Gorge. The river started life as a canal cut during the reign of Philip of Macedon. According to tradition, it was dug to drain the marshes around Philippi in the neighbouring prefecture of Drama. Hydrophile woods cover the gorge's steep, rocky sides. The river winds its way through the gorge below, sometimes peacefully, but at other times with great force, when large volumes of water are released by the dam at Symboli. There are a number of caves along the 15 kilometre length of the valley, some of which used to be inhabited. The cave dwellers left a number of rock paintings behind them, depicting figures in the forest as well as animals that once inhabited the area. The paintings are believed to date from the Fifth or Sixth Centuries AD.
The flora in the area is unique in its variety, and renders it a region of great botanical importance.