Limnos Tourist Guide

Varos

The place name refers to the 15th century and is of unknown origin. Formerly the village was five hundred meters southwest of the present location on the hillside "St'vanos", opposite the bay of Moudros, where today is the settlement Anemoessa. Due to the risk of pirates, the residents moved Varos in the valley which is located between the hills Plagia and Lagada. Above the village, there is the hill "Despot", which probably owes its name to the governor of the island, which had the title "Despot of Limnos" in the late Byzantine period and from this hill he controlled the position of the Terra Lemnia mining. In the same area, there is a residue of a volcanic crater, which is identical to the ancient volcano Mosychlos known from ancient sources. In the region a petrified tree has been found.

Lychna

It is the first village that someone faces while entering the Gulf of Moudros, which is why according to the tradition, the name came from the lights of the houses, which the seafarers were seeing while sailing in the bay at night.

The parish church of Agios. Dimitrios was built in 1865. In 1905 at the initiative of immigrants from the U.S.A., $ 456 were gathered for the renovation of the temple. Eventually, in 1924 an impressive external narthex with a single ashlar stone masonry was added. Two carved columns with ornately column capitals, rather belong to an oldest temple. The school building was erected in 1910 in a prominent position. In the village there is a windmill that has been reconstructed and dominates in a nearby hill at the edge of the village.

Certain people who excelled in public life came from Lychna. The great benefactor of Limnos Nikolaos Dallas (1855-1933), who became rich in Egypt and, up to 1910 when he got bankrupt, he was the driving force and the president of the Brotherhood of the Lemnians in Alexandria. He donated 1.5 acres at Lychna’s school to become a school garden. The teacher Charalambos Karapanagiotis (1912-2006), who served in schools in Thrace, Varos, Moudros and Athens. During the occupancy, he was an associate of the Harbour Master John Arvanitakis. The priest and teacher Panagiotis Kontaridis (1873 -;) who was a graduate of the great school of Smyrna. He served in Tsimandria (1903-04) and Plaka (1905-1910).

Romanou

Although there is no evidence, logically the name came from an old landowner called "Romanos", as in many other cases in all the island. The village became a community in 1918 under the name Romanos. In 1940 it was renamed in Romanon but called Romanou. According to oral testimonies, the inhabitants settled in the current area about 200 years ago in order to protect themselves from pirates. Formerly they lived near the Bay of Moudros, in the area of the hill Boucranos.

During the 19th century the village grew rapidly and in 1830 the inhabitants erected the magnificent Holy temple of the Nativity of Christ, with the donation of a wealthy compatriot. The church has marvelous carved stone masonry and wooden temple with original icons (Adam and Eve, Cataclysm, Jericho Trumpets, Babel Tower, Cain and Abel) by Efstratios Chaimade who was an icon painter from Imvros and which Conze admired in 1858. The impressive exonarthex with the neo-Gothic rhythm windows, the pear-shaped decorative motifs and the carved column capitals, erected at the expense of the villagers on the first of July 1881. In 1849 the source of the holy water at the entrance of the village was renovated.

Interesting sights are also the church of Saints Constantinou and Helen’s with the sculped temple, the carved wine earthenware jars, the school that was built in 1936, the carved stone war memorial and the church of Agios Fotidas in Komi (Komi is a desert at the present time rural settlement of Llmnos which is located northeast of Romanos. In Komi there was a temple of Hercules).

Repanidi

The village is first mentioned by its present name in 1285 in monastery documents. The old reports as Repanidion or Rapanidi, are repeatedly mentioned from the 13th to the 16th century and we find them again in Community documents of the 19th century in the forms: Repanidion, Rapanidi, Ropanidi.

Consequently, the name of the village derived rather from the ragweed Repanidi, so it is a name of a plant. The first inhabitants of Repanidi came from Hephaestus, which around the 12th century was begun being abandoned by its inhabitants.

The neomartyr Athanasios descended from Repanidi. He was arrested by the Turks in 1846 and led to Constantinople by boat. However, the martyr never reached there, because during the journey and while they were sailing to the Hellespont, the guards threw him chained into the sea and drowned him, knowing that they should probably be found innocents in superior court, by not have committed any crime.

The importance of the region of Repanidi is mentioned since ancient times, for as much as in the nearby site of Agiochoma, the famous "Lemnia Terra” was mined.

Kondopouli

The village owes its name to the Byzantine landowner Kontopoulos. The first inhabitants came from Hephaestia, Kotsinas and Agios Hypatios. During the occupation, Kondopouli suffered by German troops, which caused many disasters in schools and other public buildings, plundered the property of rich and poors, taking of hostages. The military unit of Kontopouli was among the last who abandoned Limnos in 1944. In the Civil War the poet Yannis Ritsos lived in Kontopouli as an exile, a fact which is mentioned in his poems.

In 1948 he composed here the "Smoked Pot" and two "Calendars of Exile." Attractions in the region of great importance are the church of Agios. Demetrios, the church of Agia. Anastasia and the subterranean “holy water”, The stone curving fountain, the archaeological site of Hephaestia the archaeological site of Kabeiria and Aliki (wetland).

Kalliopi

The establishment of the village dates back, about 1200, when the period of the decline of Hephaestia had started. At that time, the founder of the village, rich Calliope or Kalli, who had got land in the area, moved from Hephaestia. In one version Calliope was persecuted by Hephaestia because of her improper conduct. A marble sarcophagus with a carved cross bearing the words "Here lies the servant of God Kalli' is preserved in the village cemetery.

The Keros bay is the beach of the village. The bay extends about three kilometers and has been an important port until the Late Middle Ages. It was named because of its shape, which resembles a horn.

The hero of 1821 George Capetanakis descended from Kalliopi. The patron saint of the village is Agios Georgios, in honor of which a church of basilica type without a dome was built in 1869.

Every year on the feast of Agios Georgios traditional races are taking place. The route that the riders cover is about three kilometers long and extends from the church of Agios. Georgios near the beach of Keros until the entrance to the village. After the race, the award ceremony of the winner and a fundraising ball with traditional dancing and plenty of food and wine is taking place. This custom is conducted at least since the mid 19th century.

Near the village there is Chortarolimni, one of the most important wetlands in the prefecture of Lesvos. Is included in the NATURA network and being protected from environmental conditions. Since 2001 there is Environmental Information Center in the village, which is housed in the elementary school, in order to protect and promote the natural wealth of the region. There, the visitor can be informed and sensitized to environmental issues.

In the village one may visit the early Christian grave in the cemetery of Agia. Anna.

Panagia

According to the local tradition the place name Panagia predates the village and came from an old monastery. By the mid-19th century on the northeast Limnos between the village Kontopouli and the cape Plaka there wasn’t any villages. There were only a few isolated huts that belonged to the Turkish agads of Anypati . Panagia was founded around 1865 by residents of Agios Ypatios and Kontopouli who had estates in the area. As the first settlers are considered , Katogoudis Comninos , Ioannis Lagos , Emmanuel Paximadas , Dimitrios Tsagdis and Ioannis Kechagias. The site “Panagia” was chosen, where it was the old Byzantine monastery at the foot of the hill " Alepotrypes ' , probably because it was approximately the same distance from the western and eastern coasts, thus providing greater security.

Plaka

Plaka was originally a place of seasonal residence for the residents of Agios. Ypatios and Paleopolis (Hephaistia), who owned land in the area and were going to cultivate. After 1823, some people started to live there permanently and around 1860 there were gathered enough to create a settlement. The original name of the village was Symferoupolis. This name was given by the Metropolite of Limnos Joachim III, to whom the residents addressed when they decided to set up a community, because interest reasons forced them to leave Agios Hypatios. The name Plaka was given by the homonymous cape with the dun slabs. Since the cape is approximately in the middle of the straight line between Troy and Athos, some felt that this is the "Hermeon lepas" of the ancients, through which the news of Fall of Troy were broadcasted by fire. Although the tip has height of only 70 meters, cape protrudes deep into the sea and has visual contact with both areas. This is why, a beacon of 30 meters high and range of 20 miles was erected here in 1912.

Between the villages of Panagia and the Plaka there is the deserted medieval settlement Axia or Naxa. According to Arg. Moschidis is the ancient region Akesa, which named by Philoctetes, from the verb "akeomai: “healed" because he was healed from a snake bite in this area. It is not a coincidence that in this position a monastery dedicated to the doctors and therapists Agioi Anargiri founded, in an attempt of the Christian religion to usurp the ancient beliefs. Further north, in the site Rousounia, there are thermal springs with water rich in radium, suitable for spa and mud baths. Nearby there was a chapel of Agios Charalambos. Many patients from all over the island used to arrive in the area by their donkeys in order to get suffused by the hot muddy water. A few decades ago, expatriates from the U.S.A. erected a new chapel of Agios Charalambos and cells for the accommodation of the pilgrims.

Since 1355, there are reports of the existence of the fortified settlement Kastrin in the region of Plaka. Probably is identified with the " Kastrioton Castle ", in which Kritovoulos from Imbros disembarked in 1459 and turned away the Venetians from the island. The inhabitants in the years of Sultan Bayazid II (1481-1512) settled in Paleocastro (Myrina). The remains today are called Paliokastro or Vriokastro.

In the southern part of the peninsula of Vriokastro, 800 meters away from the shore and eastern of the reef of Vina, remains of ancient sunken city have been identified. Specifically, group of buildings preserved to a height of two meters with monolithic lintels and paved streets. The whole picture reminds the prehistoric city of Limnos, Poliochni. Another ancient sunken city has been found off the east coast in the sea area “Mythones”. The existence of the remains was first mentioned by Choiseul-Guffier in 1785 who equated them with the Homeric island Chrisi, which was precipitated in 197 BC.