In the mountainous mass of Olympus, at the bottom of a ravine and almost on the border of the prefectures of Larissa and Pieria, there is a village with a long history. This is the village of “Morna” where since 1926 it was renamed “Skoteino”. Morna in Turkish means dark place where a resident was recorded in the 2011 census.
The settlement is located at an altitude of 700 meters at a point where there is no sunshine for most months of the year and there is dense vegetation around it. Some facts of Morna are that in 1966 the State Wood Processing Factory was operating. It operated for several years giving employment to several workers about 100 in number within. Due to the high quality of the wood of the forest in the area, according to professor and historian Yiannis Kaztaridis, it was used for Othon’s yacht. The forest has oaks, plane trees, chestnuts and beeches whose reputation for the quality of the wood even crosses the Greek borders. Indicative of the vitality and economic development experienced by the region is the fact that in 1956 the Ministry of Commerce, during the Prime Ministership of Constantinos Karamanlis, recognizing the significant contribution of the Morna factory to the National Economy, awarded the managers a Gold Medal, within the framework of the TIF. Its name is followed by many and various scary stories that have reduced it to a “haunted” village. The inhabitants of which within one night decided to leave it and go to live some kilometers further north. In a village that was called exactly the opposite, “Foteina”.
The “haunted” stories
The metaphysical or paranormal phenomena that follow Morna have a logical explanation behind the story. Specifically, this story summarizes the route of the Greek countryside.
By the time he got there, however, dark figures appeared as suddenly as they disappeared. With doors that open and close by themselves. With eerie voices and many more creepy phenomena.
Shepherds and people commuting from their jobs at the lumber mill witnessed a strange phenomenon. Young girls, naked, danced around the village and the Morno River. It was a dance of ecstasy that frightened them so that as soon as darkness fell, they would hide in their houses and not want to come out before dawn. Few were the… daring ones who walked around at night.
This phenomenon was called “gulagudi” by the local residents, which means naked, and it involved seven girls who went around and danced their own dark dance, terrorizing the residents with their beautiful cries until just before dawn they climbed to the top of the mountain and hid. in a cave that exists there and they waited there until midnight came again. This story lasted from way back until the late 1960s! At the same time, an old scary story was that of the “hairy hand” that theoretically hunted those it found in its path. The house from which the “hairy hand” supposedly came belonged to a young man who decided to leave Greece and seek his fortune in the United States where he finally got sterilized and had a family and children. The house was abandoned to its fate and when it began to disintegrate and take on a wilder form, the legend about what was happening inside and the “curse left behind by the immigrant” grew to such an extent that the inhabitants of the village avoided even out to pass.
In addition, great fear existed in the area called Turkos. Which is connected to the era of Turkish rule and what the Greeks had experienced with executions and horrible tortures. And there are testimonies of eerie voices and apparitions of spirits. Various eerie sounds of unknown origin could be heard there. Shadows appeared and whispers out of nowhere made you shudder. In Morna today there are two churches, Agia Paraskevi and Agios Nikolaos. The first is located in the village cemetery and has the style of a basilica with a dome. Today, in the village (there is no electricity) you will only find those who have kept their houses who visit them on weekends. The area today is suitable for hiking and cycling as there are many and excellent routes.
