Agathonisi - Information

Agathonisi

Attractions The sheltered bay of Agios Georgios, with its colourful fishing boats, is full of life in the summer, and the road from here leads visitors to the island’s other two communities: “Mikro Chorio” and “Megalo Chorio”. “Megalo Chorio” is the largest and oldest community on the island, invisible from the sea (a throwback to pirate invasion times). Its main architectural feature are the stone walls that surround houses with their large entranceways to the community. There are fish-farming facilities the Katholiko area, in the north-east, which is also a fishing refuge.

There are many small churches throughout the island, such as the Metropolitan Holy Church of Agios Georgios, the Holy Church of the Virgin Mary (Panagia), the Holy Church of Agios Ioannis Theologos, the Church of Agios Raphael, the Church of Agios Charalambos, the Church of Agia Irini, the Church of Agios Ioannis, the Church of Agios Nikolaos, the Church of Agios Panteleimon, the Church of Metamorfosi tou Sotiros (which hosts interesting religious festivals in the course of the year, the biggest of which are the feast of Agios Panteleimon on 27 July, the ninth day (Enniamera) from the Assumption of Virgin Mary, on 23 August, in Megalo Chorio, and Agios Ioannis Thermastis on 29 August (day of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist).

Tholoi Finally, the east side of the island features large arched structures, the “Tholoi” (Domes), dating back to the 11th century AD and believed to have been used as food warehouses. Legend has it that there is a huge cave which leads to tunnels connecting one end of the island with the other. The archaeological excavations on the island are also worth exploring.

Agathonisi - Tourist Map (Click to enlarge)

Beaches

Agathonisi has many pebbled beaches with clear blue waters: Ai Giorgis, Spilia, Gaidouravlako, Tsaggari, Palos, Poros, Vathi Pigadi, Chohlia and Katholiko and many more, mostly accessible by car, but some only on foot.

See more photos...

Area code for Agathonisi (within Greece): 22470
International area code for Agathonisi (outside Greece): 0030 22470

Rooms to let

Name	Community	Telephone
Katsoulieris Emmanouil	Megalo Chorio	29085
Katsoulieri Aggeliki	Megalo Chorio	29085
Yiameos Georgios	Agios Georgios	29007
Yiameou Theologia	Agios Georgios	29006
Kamitsi Maria	Agios Georgios	29003, 29004
Kamitsis Georgios	Agios Georgios	29064, 29101
Kamitsis Isidoros	Agios Georgios	29019
Kopaniaris Ioannis	Agios Georgios	29062
Kottoros Evangelos	Agios Georgios	29008

Restaurants - Tavernas

Name	Community	Telephone
Katsoulieri Argyro	Megalo Chorio	29054
Kamitsis Georgios	Agios Georgios	29064, 29101
Kopaniaris Ioannis	Agios Georgios	29062
Kypraiou Vasileia	Agios Georgios	29066
Karydis Eleftherios	Katholiko (area)

Traditional Cafes

Name	Community	Telephone
Kanelli Maroudio	Megalo Chorio	29080

Snack Bars

Name	Community	Telephone
Kamitsis Isidoros	Agios Georgios	29019
Katsoulieri Eirini	Agios Georgios	29000
Kottoros Evangelos	Agios Georgios	29008

Μini Markets

Name	Community	Telephone
Vourexaki Maria	Megalo Chorio	29048
Kypraios Charalambos	Agios Georgios	29001

As part of the monastic state of Patmos, the island has a history inextricably linked with Greek Orthodoxy. Religious faith is very deep and Christian traditions are respected devoutly.

The most important celebrations on the island are held on 27 July for the Feast of Agios Panteleimon, and on 15 August (Assumption of the Virgin Mary), when fresh bread baked in wood-fired ovens, local sweets and meat are offered to all attendants. A particularly noteworthy custom is “Kleidona”: The Agathonisians light fires in the squares and jump over them in order to free themselves of the bad spirits. The other two significant festivals are held on 23 August in Megalo Chorio on the ninth day from the Assumption of Virgin Mary, and on 29 August in honour of Agios Ioannis Thermastis (day of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist). On this particular day, the inhabitants only ate grapes, prickly pears and sea urchins, because if they ate anything else, it would give them fever (thermi), hence the saint’s nickname “Thermastis”.

Dancing group of “Ietoussa” Cultural Association	See video from the Feast of Agios Panteleimon (Agathonisi, July 27th 2009)
Christmas and Holy Week are also celebrated with traditional fervour.

Cultural events, featuring local dancing groups and promoting the island’s traditions, are organised by the island’s Cultural Association “Ietoussa”.

In ancient times, it was referred to as Psetoussa; Thucydides calls it Tragaeae, while Strabon and Stephen of Byzantium call the island and its neighbouring islets Tragaeae and Plutarch, Tragia. Tragaeae is the birthplace of the philosopher Theogitus, a student of Aristotle. After the Karians, the island was successively inhabited by the Dorians and Ionians; the sea battle of Lardi (494 BC), between the Persian and Ionian fleets, took place nearby.

During the Byzantine period, it was probably inhabited by Byzantine exiles; it is said that they were the source of the islanders’ linguistic idiom, a particularly pure Hellenic dialect. The island was settled and abandoned several times by its inhabitants due to unfavourable living conditions; the latest community being that of the Patmians and Fourniots in the early 19th century. In 1294, the island was donated to the Patmos Monastery, and in 1522 it passed into the hands of the Ottomans. On 6 August 1824, the defeated Ottoman-Egyptian fleet sought shelter there – the island was used as a pirate refuge until the 14th century – and 25 days later, the sea battle of Gerontas took place east of the island.

In 1912, Agathonisi came under Italian rule, as did the rest of the Dodecanese islands, and in 1943 it was taken over by the Germans before being finally ceded to Greece on 7 March 1948.

After that, Agathonisi was administratively under the jurisdiction of Patmos Municipality, and in 1954, it officially became a separate Community.

Since 2006, a systematic excavation led by Dr. Pavlos Triantafyllidis has been under way, carried out by the 22nd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in a fortified community dated to the early Hellenistic Age (late 4th-early 3rd century BC) located on the island’s north side, overlooking the Maistros Bay (image 1). This coastal site was the harbour of the ancient city Tragaeae, known only from literary sources.

Remains of ancient structures – in particular, thick fortification walls surrounding the community and extending from the eastern hillside to the coastline – were discovered amidst lush, wild vegetation.

The site is strewn with plentiful artefacts, mainly clay and stone pots dating from the Hellenistic and early Roman period. Impressive rock-cut rectangular niches – associated with anchoring installations for light, flexible warships – were discovered in the coastal area south of the fort.

A total surface of 5,000 m2 is surrounded to the north, south and east by extensive fortification walls with a thickness of 1,80-2 metres (image 2), shaped into rock-cut beddings. The walls – stone slabs were quarried in the local mine and cut on a flattened dolomitic limestone – were suitable defensive works to protect the ancient fort’s inhabitants from any invaders, mainly pirates, given that piracy flourished in the Aegean during the Hellenistic Age.

A large rock-cut water cistern (image 3), coated with hydraulic plaster and used for storing water and draining it into the fort’s lower levels, was excavated in the ancient acropolis on the upper rock-cut bedding. Of particular interest with regard to the cistern’s abandonment is the discovery of a refuse pit containing a host of ceramic finds of the late Hellenistic and early Roman period (late 2nd century BC-early 2nd century AD), such as amphorae, beehive pots, bowls, cooking pots, red-figure plates, and lamps, some of which bore dedications on their bases, addressed to the God Zeus Lykaios (meaning wolf-Zeus).

The city’s trade and economic activities during early Roman times (1st century BC-1st century AD) included dye shops and a workshop for the production of ancient pigments, part of which was excavated near the southern fortification wall (image 5). The workshop was connected with an overflow pipe to two cisterns, coated with hydraulic plaster, excavated on two different levels. A stone basin inside one of the cisterns was found to contain countless shells, most of which were murexes, such as the species murex brandaris, historically used for the extraction and production of purple-red dye in various hues, depending on the species and the duration of sun exposure.

The sea shells that were found inside and around the cisterns, mostly of the species Murex brandaris, Cerinthium vulgare, Bittium reticulatum da Costa, Conus venticosus Gmelin, Euthria cornea L., Buccinum undulatum L., and Patella coerulea L., were either poked or crushed in Antiquity for the extraction of the pure dye.

Another finding is a terracotta tile (image 11) bearing the first official inscription about the island, dating to the late 2nd and early 1st century AD and mentioning a war victory of the metropolis, Miletus, on the occasion of which a temple was erected in honour of Zeus Lykaios in the fortified coastal community on Agathonissi. Various plain, hand-made ceramic potsherds, as well as many excavated tools, point to the community’s abandonment around the first half of the 2nd century AD, after a devastating earthquake hit Asia Minor in 155/156 AD causing irreparable damage to the fort.

Findings also include a significant number of gold and bronze coins dating from the 4th century BC, cut in Miletus under the Carian dynasty of Ecatomnides, clay idols of the type “Tanagraia” dating from the late 4th century BC (image 7), weights for textiles (image 8), decorated amphorae handles (image 9) of the Rhodes, Cnidus, or Kos types and dated between the 4th and 2nd century BC, indicating that trade continued in the Hellenistic Age. Artefacts such as pottery waste, numerous shells, coarse-ware finds and iron ores point to strong craft-related activity on the island and, in particular, iron and pottery workshops, which, together with dye shops, ensured the island’s prosperity and reinvigorated aspects of its rural economy and trade.

The numerous ancient finds from the latest community phase in the fort, dating to the late Hellenistic and early Roman Age, consist mainly of beehive pots (image 10) used for the production of honey (3,000 potsherds).

Despite the adverse circumstances under which excavations are being carried out, the discovery of the archaeological site will become an incentive for the border island’s qualitative upgrading in terms of tourism.

_{Dr. Pavlos Triantafyllidis - Archaeologist}

Services - Authorities in Agathonisi	Telephone
Municipality of Agathonisi	29009, 29010
Mayor's Office	29394
Citizens' Service Centre	29204
Medical Practice	29049
Dentistry	29073
Post Office	29115
Public Power Corporation (DEI) office	29050
Hellenic Organization of Telecommunications (ΟΤΕ) office	29099
Military post	29029
Police station	29029
Port authority post	31231
Metropolitan Holy Church of Agios Georgios	29095
Primary school	29207
High school	29069
Cultural association “Ietoussa”	29086
Travel agency	29004
Building for travelers	29000
Gas station	6945 329984

Agathonisi postcode: 850 03

Area code for Agathonisi (within Greece): 22470
International area code for Agathonisi (outside Greece): 0030 22470