How did we get to the construction of the famous floating footbridge in Lake Mikri Prespa? What factors catalyzed the decision, so that such an important project was delivered in record time for the Greek public sector’s standards? The answer is not hidden in bureaucratic offices, but in the stubbornness and daily life of a few children.
Until the end of the 1990s, the residents of Agios Achilleios had to use their “plaves” (the characteristic wooden boats, specially made for the waters of Prespa) for their communication with the outside world. Similarly, the few visitors had to, by prior arrangement, rent the locals’ boats to visit the historic islet.
The Prespa events in the mid-1990s and the need to transport thousands of visitors dynamically brought the request for the construction of a footbridge to the forefront. Nevertheless, although top government ministers visited the events as honored guests and experienced the access problem firsthand, no substantial action was taken to solve it.
The letter to the President of the Republic
In 1997, the then 8-year-old Dana Paraskevopoulou, one of the six children of Agios Achilleios who had to cross Lake Mikri Prespa by boat daily to go to their school in Agios Germanos, took an initiative. In the context of a school educational activity titled “Letter to the President of the Republic,” she asked the then President, Kostis Stephanopoulos, to build a bridge so that in winter and summer they could go to their school safely.
Years passed. Dana’s request, which was also the burning desire of all the island’s inhabitants, was heard more and more often, but no one took the long-awaited decision to construct it.
The severe winter of 1999 and the frozen lake
The winter of 1999 proved to be extremely harsh for Prespa. Just before Christmas, there were heavy snowfalls, while the temperature dropped dramatically below zero. The phenomenon lasted for a long time, resulting in the lake freezing completely.
As Kostas Paraskevopoulos, Dana’s father and a teacher at a local school at the time, explains: “The freezing of the lake is not something rare, but it takes many days and for many hours the temperature must be below zero, so that first the shallow parts of the lake and then the rest can freeze.”
That year the lake froze very early, making the daily life of the residents incredibly difficult, as they had to transport their supplies on improvised sleds over the ice during the holidays. With the new year, when the day came for the children to return to school, a journalistic mission was organized to highlight the risky daily life of these students. With the consent of the parents, the television lens would record for the first time the crossing of the frozen Mikri Prespa.
Journey on the ice: Guided by the sound of a stick
In the first days of January 2000, early in the morning, Kostas Paraskevopoulos and his father, Giorgos, crossed the frozen lake to pick up the journalistic crew and return together to Agios Achilleios, where the students were waiting.
The local escorts had a rope braid worn diagonally across their shoulder. Grandfather Giorgos Paraskevopoulos, who had taken on the role of the group’s guide, held a large stick. With it, he constantly hit the ice and, depending on the sound he heard, arranged the course and the steps that the rest had to follow with absolute precision.
The instructions to the reporters were explicit: “The distance between us throughout the route must be at least 3 meters. If the ice breaks, there is no immediate danger of drowning, since at the points of the route the depth does not exceed 1.7 meters, and the ropes will be used for rescue.” The feeling of fear was dominant, especially when you felt the ice cracking with every step. But, at the thought that 10-year-old children made this journey daily, fear stepped aside for admiration.
Waiting on the islet were the 6 students: siblings Giorgos and Dana (children of Kostas Paraskevopoulos) and siblings Aliki, Nikos, Tasos, and Giorgos. Together they took the way back to school. The children, distributed between the grandfather and the father, walked casually, stepping exactly in the footsteps of the experienced guide. “It’s something we’ve been doing since we were little kids and we know it,” they stated with disarming naturalness. At noon, returning, they spoke to the camera about how a bridge would change their lives and their future.
The report that shocked Greece
The broadcast of the report the next day, with the young students walking on the frozen lake in a landscape reminiscent of Siberia, caused a real tsunami of support. For days, the children of Prespa and the now 11-year-old Dana were the top topic of discussion in the media. Important people of intellect, such as writer Antonis Samarakis, became the most ardent supporters of their request.
Twenty-two days after the broadcast of the topic, on February 2, 2000, the then Prime Minister Kostas Simitis arrived in Agios Germanos to sign the Joint Declaration for the creation of the Prespa Cross-Border Park, together with his counterparts from Albania (Ilir Meta) and North Macedonia (Ljubco Georgievski).
“We will build the bridge”
That day, Dana waited for him holding a bouquet of flowers. “I gave him the flowers and said: ‘Mr. Prime Minister, today I came to school walking on the frozen lake. We want you to build us a bridge.’” The moment was recorded by dozens of television cameras and photojournalists from all over the world. “For a moment the Prime Minister seemed to be taken by surprise,” Dana remembers, but immediately answered almost in a single phrase: “We will build the bridge.”
And so it happened. Developments ran at a blistering pace. In record time the study was completed, the project —budgeted at 700 million drachmas— was given by direct assignment to a construction company in Northern Greece and was completed in less than four months. In September of the same year, the Agios Achilleios footbridge was opened for use, changing the geography of isolation forever.
Dana today: Art as an extract of memory
Today, we met Dana Paraskevopoulou, now a mother of two boys, at the family’s agrotourism guesthouse in Agios Achilleios. Around her are paintings and photographs with details from the desolation and silence of Prespa: the blurry landscapes with the fogs, the face of the frost, and the endless reedbeds where the rare treasures of the lake nest. All made by her own brush and captured by her own photographic eye.
When we asked her what she remembers most vividly from that school period, her answer was full of images: “I have kept as a precious memory the image of my father, who, before the lake froze solid, broke the ice with iron bars paving the way for our boat. And of course, my grandfather, who, when we could no longer take the boat, would make a hole and measure the thickness of the ice before we started walking. I remember him going ahead with the big stick and hitting it continuously on the ice, asking us to follow his steps exactly.”
— Were there moments you were afraid on this route? “Several times. Especially at noon when we were returning from school on sunny days. Due to the slight rise in temperature, the ice on the surface melted slightly and we stepped on water and mud. Even though we always had our grandfather or father next to us, I was very afraid. I thought the ice wouldn’t hold me and I would sink.”
As an epilogue to our conversation, Dana made sure to pay tribute to two people from that era who are no longer alive today: her beloved grandfather, Giorgos, and her classmate and neighbor, Giorgos, who passed away very young.
The six brave children of Prespa, with the stoicism they showed towards their extremely harsh daily lives, did not just change the conditions of their own lives. They changed the landscape for all of us, who can today cross the Agios Achilleios footbridge safely and enjoy the priceless ecotourism treasure of Prespa.
