Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments

The chapel of Aghios Georgios is located some 2.8 km west of the village, among towering pines and within a stone enclosure, bounded to the East by a stream. Local tradition has it that “Aghiorgis” is a very old church which was once a cemetery church or the church of a monastery.

The present chapel dates back to the 19th century and is of the cross-in-square compressed type, covered by a cylindrical dome. It is built of fieldstones, tiles and mortar, which especially in the corners are strengthened by spolia of early Christian times from an older building. A window partition from a Byzantine church was used as a threshold block for the chapel, and built into the walls are two more similar blocks and a fragment o Ionian capital and some cut marble blocks. Above the tympanon on both sides of the chapel are depressions after built in but no longer extant bowls. The chapel has a clerestory. In 1990 old tiles were reused when the roof of the chapel was repaired.

Immediately south of the chapel is a paved floor under a thin cover of soil, and further south an open grave was found walled with brick and a capstone fallen into the grave. The older church may have been located here.

The date of the present chapel is unknown, but the practice of decorating the walls with bowls is seen from the 11^th century and is especially common in the 13^th and 14^th centuries, so the erection of the chapel may have taken place in that period.

Spolia of early Christian times are incorporated in the churches external masonry. Internally there are no frescoes decorating the walls.

The church has been classified as a historic preserved monument since 1989 with a protection zone around it (YA YPPO/ARCH/B1/Φ30/42944/956/1-11-1989 – Gazette 855/B/9-11-1989).