Chionades is a village nested among the craggy mountains north of Ioannina, near the border with Albania. It was always a place where life was hard and survival required ingenuity and hard work. There was never enough pasture or arable land, while snow covered the mountain passes and isolated the village for many months each year. Many villagers had no choice but to become itinerant carpenters or painters, and they were remarkably successful. For many decades since the middle of the 18th century, master painters from Chionades crisscrossed northern Greece and decorated churches and private residences with a pictorial art that combined folk elements with the principles of Byzantine art.