The municipality of Petra is located at the northwest of Lesvosand comprises the villages Petra, Skoutaros, Stypsi, Lafionas, Ypsilometopo and the settlements Petri and Anaxos. The regioncombines exceptional natural beauties: olive groves and forests with pines, oak-trees, cypress-trees as well as fruit-bearing trees, traditional stone built mountain villages with running waters and rich vegetation, but also seaside modern summer holiday settlements with sandy beaches and crystal waters. Petra Lesvos is beginning to sprawl behind its broad, sandy beach and seafront square with a core of old stone houses, many with Levantine-style balconies overhanging the streets.
Petra takes its name from the giant monolith located some distance inland and capped by the eighteenth-century church of Panagia Glykofiloussa, reached via 114 rock-hewn steps on the northeast side.
The walled compound at the top is of a little intrinsic interest, but you should climb up at dawn or dusk for superb views of the surrounding agricultural plain. More intriguing local sights include the sixteenth-century church of Agios Nikolaos, at the foot of the rock, sporting three phases of well-preserved frescoes up to 1721. Inland from Petra, you can drive or walk the steep, partly paved road 3Km up Petri village, set on a natural, west-facing balcony and a unique view of the valley. By day, Petri is the trailhead for the way marked path to Vafios. Its forty minutes down to the Pigadhos ravine, with its old water mill and aqueduct.Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.
The church is built in the centre of Petra (55 km from Mytilene, in the north part of the island) on a rock of approximately 40m height. 114 steps carved in the rock lead to its top. It constitutes one of the most important places of pilgrimage on Lesbos. Travellers from the 15th to the 18th century report the existence of a small castle on the top of the rock. It is probable that in an earlier phase there was a small church surrounded by walls, which in the beginning of the 17th century was replaced with a bigger one which took its present form after the repair works in 1840. This church is made of stone and follows the architectural type of a three-aisled basilica.
The intricately decorated and recently restored Vareltzidhena’s mansion, it is built of the verge of 18th – 19th century and belongs to The Lesvos cosmic architecture of the late Turkish domination, combining local and Eastern elements with neoclassic, Byzantine architecture and baroque style. Some of whose rooms spot exquisite naïve, late-eighteenth century murals: courting couples, a bear being trained, sailing ships and a stylized skyline of Constantinople complete with cannons booming in a naval engagement.
In the area of Avlaki in Petra, Nectarios Paraskevaidis, the trainer and founder of 
