A beautiful mountain village in Greece is right next to what is often referred to as Europe’s “deepest gorge”.

Papingo is in the northwest region of mainland Greece, with the small village home to just over 220 people.

The picturesque spot actually consists of two villages, Megalo Papingo and Mikro Papingo, or Greater Papingo and Lesser Papingo.

On the way into the villages, visitors will see the Byzantine-style Agia Paraskevi Monastery, which dates back to the 18th century.

Papingo’s special atmosphere is created by its cobbled streets, stately mansions, beautiful fountains, and old Byzantine churches, all based on the traditional local architecture.

Papingo sits inside the Vikos-Aoos National Park and is at the northern edge of the Vikos Gorge – the deepest in Greece, if not Europe.

Vikos is listed as the world’s “deepest relative to its width” gorge by the Guinness Book of Records among others.

The gorge is between the Pindus Mountains, on the southern slopes of Mount Tymphe. It is 32km long, 2.5km wide and up to 1.35km deep.

It attracts many hikers and mountaineers from around the world, surrounded by deciduous forests and topped by the snowcapped mountain.

A footpath leads up from the village to Drakolimni, a glacial lake at an altitude of 2000 m. The trek to the mountaintop lake lasts about 5 hours.

Another landscape attraction is a series of rock pools known as the Kolymbethres (baptismal fonts) or the Ovires of Rogovos, which have been formed in the limestone by the stream running down Mount Tymphe.

The climate of the region is Mediterranean transitioning to Continental with heavy snowfalls in the winter and considerable rainfall and humidity also during the other seasons of the year.

Those wishing to visit Papingo can travel by plane or bus to nearby Ioannina, from there it is recommended to hire a car to reach the village. The larger village has many hotels, guesthouses, inns, taverns, restaurants and cafes.