It is built in the fringes of mountain Tymfi (Mt Tymphe), at a height of 1160 m. The name "Skamneli" is of uncertain origin.

These were Catuna or Catuni, Agios Georgios, Prophetes Elias, Gardiki, Trepesi, Kotsanades, Palaiochori (Koziakos-Katsikochori) and Nouka.

The region of the village was inhabited since prehistoric times, as there have been found ancient, so-called Pelasgian fortifications, known by the locals also as the Palaiokastro.

In the Ottoman period, Skamneli belonged to the Koinon of the Zagorisians (Greek: Κοινόν Ζαγορισίων) formed after a treaty with Sinan-Pasha in 1431.

The Koinon of the Zagorisians was reformalised by a treaty signed in 1670, under which Zagori enjoyed considerable privileges called "Surutia", which were only rescinded by the Sultan in 1868.

One major such raid is recorded in the books of the Monastery of St Paraskevi, according to Frangoulis[4] dated to 1688, by one named Ali Chogmeno at the head of 166 men.

Armatoloi arrived from Doliani, another village in Zagori, under their captain Douvlis and dispersed the bandits after killing Ali Chogmeno.

In the second half of the 18th century, Skamneli is believed to have had a population of about 950, according to Frangoulis,[4] based on two surviving village records, but other estimates are of up to 800 families for the entire region.

During a tour of Mt Tymphe, Ali Pasha was caught in a storm and spent a night in Skamneli at the manor of the Saitzes family, said to have caused his admiration.

Alexis Noutsos from Kapesovo, a member of the Philike Hetairia who had intermarried with the Saitzes family and owned a house in Skamneli, was in command of the force opposing Ismael Pasha.

The plan never materialised because of the limited success of the Greek War of Independence, that left Epirus under Ottoman rule.

Georgios' brother Kostas Papazoglou, another member of the Philike Hetairia, left for Missolonghi, where he led and financed a cavalry company during the Greek War of Independence.

Several Skamneliots enlisted in the so-called Sacred Band of Alexander Ypsilantis in the opening phase of the Greek War of Independence and fought in Drăgăşani.

They were believed by the locals to have been brought to Europe by the Turks from Asia, and were involved in the making of tools and utensilis and other metalwork, as well as musical instruments.

A Turkish unit subsequently entered the village and set fire to the school and to all the houses whose occupants were absent.

The village became almost deserted during the Greek Civil War (1946-9) and more of the older stone houses fell to ruin in the subsequent period.

On a subsequent recommendation of the would-be benefactors, the site for the university was moved to the nearby monastery of St John of Rogov (Gr.

Nothing remains of the Saitzios School, having been destroyed during the First Balkan War, its stone having been afterwards looted for the building of nearby houses.

However, there are some old houses still in existence, built in the traditional style of Zagori, notably that of the Gennadios family, near the village square and those of Cyparrisos, Frangoulis and Theodosiou.

While the older ceilings are now mostly gone, a very fine example of modern work in the old Scamneliot style can be seen in the hotel "To Rhadio" (το Ραδιό), along the main road, near the church of the Apostles.

The church of the Apostles (Agioi Apostoloi) was built in 1793 next to the village square by a benefaction from two Skamneliots living in the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and in Bessarabia, Demetrios and Christodoulos Saitzes.

The exterior fresco mainly around the theme of the Final Judgement was apparently made by a hagiographer from nearby Koukouli.

A custom surviving until recently in some villages in the area was a divination referred to as the "amileto nero" (unbespoken water).

It involved an offering of water and grain by adolescent girls, relating to an ancient Demetriac festival of the month of Gamelion.

The bride would set out on a white horse, wearing a knitted vest over a gilded dress held together by a golden waistband decorated with florins.

Adam Gorgidas, a professor of Medicine at the University of Budapest, member of the Philike Etairia (Filiki Eteria) translated in 1849 the Encheiridion of Practical Pathology of D.P.

[6] Among else, she provided the funds for the building of a library for the University of Athens and built a school for girls in Ioannina, the Papazogleios.