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The name came from the red color that the soil of the area has got and especially the famous Lemnia Terra, which was mined from the nearby hill Despotis, the Mosychlo of the ancients, near the chapel of Sotiras. In 1981 the village was recorded as a separate settlement of the Repanidi community with the name Kotsinas.

During the Middle Ages it was an important port. At first was the seaport of Hephaestia while later, in 1361, acquired an imposing Castle. On the hill of Cochinas, inside the castle, stands the temple of Zoodochos Pigi on top of a well, "holy water" in which one descends with 64 stairs (formerly with 57 or 51) until he almost reach the sea level. Obviously, when the artificial hill of the castle was created, there were plans for an underground passage, so as not to lose the necessary water during the sieges. The “holy water” took its current form in 1918, but the present church was built in 1954, with a contribution of expatriates of America and Australia. From the Byzantine past only an architrave is preserved today.

In 1478 Kotsinas passed into history when was besieged by Suleiman Pasha. According to one legend, popularized in the West, mainly from a 1669 poem by the Jesuit Dondini, the castle was saved at the last minute thanks to the courage of Maroula which, when her father was killed, grabbed his sword and rushed animating the defenders fighters which solved the siege. Although today it is doubtful whether the event occurred at the siege of Cochinas or Palaeokastro (Myrina) and whether Maroula was the daughter or the wife of the slain fighter Georgios Makris, this episode was praised both by Italian writers, such as: Sabelico, Coelius, Calcagnini, Fulgosius, Vianoli but also from Greek writers such as Kostis Palamas Aristomenis Provelengios, Maria Lampadaridou-Pothou, Anthony Soupios. A bronze statue of Maroula is standing there since 1969 by the Teaching Association of Limnos, reminding the visitor that heroic episode. In the area of Kotsinas there is a great tradition of pottery from the medieval years, or maybe earlier.

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