LIGOURIO

If you like to visit small, old churches, take a trip to Ligourio, just west of Epidavros. Here you’ll find many worth seeing!

The main picture shows Agios Ioannis Theologos (St. John), which was built in the 1100 century and restored around 1700. Most of the frescoes here are gone, but we can see that the builders of the church have made use of some building materials from even older buildings. Presumably, this was once a monastery church, which now lies quite alone in a beautiful, rolling agricultural landscape.

This church is located a short drive north of the town, on the road to Chrysospiliotissa and Nea Epidavros.

In the centre of Ligourio there are several churches: another Agios Ioannis from the 11. and 12. century (see below) and Panagitsa or the Virgin Mary church from about 1700, both with beautiful frescoes. Just outside the town, Agia Marina from 1713 (see below) and Agios Athanassios, the latter is very old and was renovated in the 1600 century.

The Pyramid of Ligourio can be found near Agia Marina. The Pyramid of Elliniko is considerably better preserved, but if you're nearby anyway, take a look. Only the base is preserved, and it makes us wonder how the gigantic stones where transported here and lifted on top of each other.

While we're on the theme of Byzantine churches, we’ll also mention the one in Adami, a small village on the road between Ligourio and Trachia. This little double-nave church is the only of its kind in Argolis except the one in Arachneo. The church's two "parts", Ag. Nikolaos and Ag. Dimitrios, were built in the 1500s.

(By the way, if you drive on to Trachia, this is the village to buy bread and cheese - people here are famous because the quality of the their locally produced cheeses and bread.)

But we were not quite finished with Ligourio: We must not forget the private Kotsiomitis Natural History Museum, with fossils, minerals and shells, a total of 6000 items from around the world. The collection is quite unique in Greece and even by European standards. You can see fossils that are 3.000.000 to 530.000.000 years old, from near and far. Also visit the museum shop, where both fossils and handmade jewellery made of local and not so local minerals are sold for a very resonable price.