During the Middle Ages, stock breeders established a settlement in a mountainous and inaccessible site that offered protection against threats. The French writer Pouqueville passed from here in the early 19th century and claims that the village was named Kalarites from the noise of the abundant waters that form waterfalls around here. Gradually the people of Kalarites became traders and muleteers who carried their own handmade products all over the mountain roads of Epirus. Later they reached Trieste, Leghorn, Moscow, and Vienna. They sell a great variety of products, including famous wool fabrics and capes good enough for Napoleon’s army. In the beginning of the 19th century Kalarites is a community with 3000 residents, a school, and a lively circulation of books and newspapers. Even Ali Pasha of Ioannina has a cottage here.