Apiranthos Fanariotissa Moni Panagia Drossiani

Having starting line the village of Apiranthos with the narrow marble paved mule tracks covered by archways, the stone houses and the towers, a village that reminds a lot from the years of the Venetian Empire. The village with the three museums, archeological, geological, folklore, which all has exhibits of great importance to show.

Following the marble paved mule tracks we cross the village and go up to Fanari Mountain that is 850m high. After a relatively easy ascent we are up the top of the mountain where we will find the small church of Panagia Fanariotissa. From up there the view is unique. We cannot only see the around islands, Syros, Tinos, Mykonos, Paros, Sifnos, Amorgos, Donousa, and Koufonisi but also in the deep horizon we can distinguish the coast of Turkey.

After that stop we continue our route going down to the beautiful village of Moni, a village with a terrific view to the valley of Tragea with the olive groves. Following the right road 1500m outside the village we find Panagia Drosiani on of the most important churches in Balkans. According to experts’ words it is probably the most ancient Byzantine church. It is dated at around 6th century.

There are valuable murals of the precocious Byzantine painting art. Many layers of murals constitute the hagiography of this great church. The most characteristic mural is the one of Panagia Nikopoios where Panagia is portrayed to keep a disc in which Chris is appeared. The architectural design of the church is also very peculiar.