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Lesvos Safari Tours |
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Jeep Trekking Tours - Outdoor Activities - Travel Services on Lesvos island
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Is located at the slopes of the imposing mountain Olympos, at a height of 475 meters, 26km from Mytilene, with its special bright green landscape, its narrow cobbled streets lined by ranks of tiled-roof houses, the traditional architecture and its restless and religious inhabitants. Agiassos, artistic and religious centre of the island, is a preserved settlement that has many to offer to visitors. A very famous cultural institution has been established in 1854 when the village was still under Turkish domination, the reading society of Anaptixi. Today it has a great library, a theatre hall and a folklore museum.
Agiasos is also famous about its artistic handicraft – folklore art, pottery and woodcarving, many workshops continuing a long tradition. Walking uphill to the old marketplace, you will be surrounded by wooden and ceramic souvenirs or carved Byzantine furniture, yogurt and cheese shops and kafenia with bands of Sandouri, clarinet, lap-drum and violin, play on weekend afternoons, accompanying spontaneous, inebriated dance performances on the cobbles outside.
The church is situated in the centre of the village Agiasos and is dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin. Internally lit by an improbable number of hanging oil lamps was originally build in the twelfth century to house a wonder-working icon painted by the Evangelist Luke. It is a three-aisled post-Byzantine basilica, with a marble temple made in the beginning of the 19th century and with wall paintings dating from 1838. In the church yard there is an ecclesiastical museum with numerous remarkable exhibits from the area around. The church constitutes one of the most important places of pilgrimage on the island. An impressive folklore festival takes place on the 15th of August when pilgrims come from all around Lesvos and Greece to perform devotions.
