Location information

Horse Races

PLATY (Village) ARFARA
In Platy, a beautiful small village on the messinian valley, horse races take place every year on the day they celebrate St. Georgeos which is a custom dating back to the 1800’s. Tradition has it that horse races started there, in which mainly young men who trained in horse riding took part in order to be used as messangers in the preparation of the revolution against the Turks. They misled the Turks by saying that the races were of a religious nature but in this way the chieftains had a chance to meet and organise the Revolution. In memory of these events, this custom is still continued and is held in the same place it used to.

This extract is cited March 2003 from the Messenia Prefecture Tourism Promotion Commission URL below, which contains image.

• http://www.na-messinia.gr/docs-en/ithi.htm