Oiti

Oiti National Park was established in 1966 in central Greece, on the massif of Mount Oeta, a south-eastern extension of the Pindus range shared between the regional units of Phthiotis and Phocis. Its core protects some 7,000 hectares, and the main summit, Pyrgos, reaches 2,152 metres.

Its botanical richness is exceptional: more than a thousand species of vascular plant have been recorded, around 20 % of the entire Greek flora, and at least fifty endemics. Among them is Veronica oetaea, a strict endemic of the massif considered critically endangered and listed as a priority species in the European Union, which lives exclusively in the mountain's Mediterranean temporary ponds, a habitat also listed as a priority, which floods in winter and dries out in summer. That combination of environments, from the seasonal ponds to the high-altitude woodland, is what gives the park its conservation value and its status as a key area within the Natura 2000 network.

The forest vegetation is dominated by Cephalonian fir, and the wildlife includes wolf, roe deer, Balkan chamois — whose Greek populations have been preserved thanks to the protection of this park along with those of Olympus and Vikos-Aoös — and raptors. The mountain also carries a notable mythological charge: according to the classical account, it was here that Heracles immolated himself on a pyre to end his suffering.