Kellia
According to various scholars and Byzantine-period sources, “Kellia,” or “the mount of Kellia,” as it was also called, was the name of a mountain in Eastern Thessaly. Some identify it with the mountain of Zagora, Pelion; others with Kissavos; and according to yet others, it refers to the intermediate peaks of these mountains at Mavrovouni, with its ultimate northern boundary being the mouth of the Peneios River, and the Aegean touching its eastern foothills. The only certain fact is that the name derives from the monks’ cells of an extensive monastic community, situated on slopes of blessed natural beauty.
Behind the peaks of Pelion and Kissavos stretches the life-giving Thessalian Plain, protected for millennia by the “mysterious” mount of Kellia, which filters everything carried by the sea breeze onto its eastern slopes—the first to face the sun each morning. Yet the head of all Thessaly remains Mount Olympus, home of the ancient gods, who, according to myth, descended to Pelion for their summer holidays.
A part of the monastic tradition remains alive even today in Eastern Thessaly. Its remnants, however, reveal that there once existed a monastic community comparable to that of Athos, which lies directly opposite and becomes visible when the north wind clears the horizon. In the monasteries, alongside religious faith, a deep knowledge of nature’s derivatives—life-giving products—was preserved and developed for centuries. Religious rules and rituals placed olives, and naturally olive oil—which helps keep the flame of memories and hope alive—in a leading role, and not at all by coincidence.
Flavors are a component of memories. Pleasant flavors create hopes… once again. Flavors carry stories and entire places within them. Flavors are an inspiration for tomorrow, a respect for yesterday. Flavors are cells that enclose within them knowledge and beautiful moments of centuries.
Drops of flavorful memories from the blessed land of Thessaly inside a bottle of “Kellia” olive oil. Our olive groves, centuries-old, located between the mountain peaks and the coasts of Thessaly, thrive in a unique and rare microclimate that combines mountain air with the Aegean breeze. Some lie at the foothills of Olympus and others at the foothills of Pelion, giving us the exceptional raw material that allows us to enclose, in a single drop of pure extra virgin olive oil, all the beauties of Thessaly within one bottle. Kellia olive oil is an ark of flavor, inspiration, memories, and love for the land, the olive, and the oil.
From the peaks of Olympus and Pelion to the coasts of the Aegean, each drop of olive oil contains every beautiful moment that becomes a lived experience.
A family endeavor that carries within it the experiences of centuries.