The Wedding of Koutrouli

Every year on Clean Monday in Methoni, the festival “Koutroulis' Wedding” takes place.

It is a satirical custom that revives in the form of a parody, a marriage that took place in the 14th century when the area was captured by the Franks. It begins one day before Clean Monday, where the residents show to the people the dowry of the bride and the farce continues until the evening of Clean Monday with a street festival, offering traditional raost pork, “gourounopoula”, wine and slices of bread with olive oil, toasted in fires.

The protagonist of this mythical story was the knight Ioannis Koutroulis, who was madly in love with a girl from Methoni, who unfortunately was already married! The girl could not get divorced because the Christian Bishop would not allow it. Finally, after 17 years, the two lovers, taking refuge in the Patriarch of Constantinople, and were eventually married in 1405. A celebration of many days followed and everyone was invited. Since then, any great celebration with an exaggeration of time or expensive has been described as "the marriage of Koutroulis".