Escape to Mainites
ELIAS MUSEUM - AGIAS MARINAS MONASTERY - PYTHARA FALLS - SARIZA SPRINGS - MAINITES
Excursion Description
We start from the Andros 4 All Seasons Villas & Suites hotel in Ormos Korthiou with destination Mainites and return
Olive Museum
This liotrivi in Pitrofos, also known as “vida”, occupies a significant part of the ground floor “downstairs” of the two-story stone building. The first floor has always been the owner’s residence.
It is a wonderful example of a small pre-industrial animal powered olive oil production unit. Its facades and internal stonework have been nicely restored, saving all the original structural elements, which were typical of the rural architecture of the Cyclades.
The museum has been ranked 1st out of 5 museums and 35 activities and attractions in Andros and 2nd out of 120 museums in the Cyclades.
Monastery of Agia Marina
The Holy Monastery of Agia Marina, located north of Chora, was recently renovated. The Monastery dates back to 1325, when in the Litres area, Saint Marina miraculously appeared to an old ascetic and instructed him to find her image in a cleft of a rock, as he did.
During the 16th century the monastery was burned down three times by pirate raids, but Hieromonk Sophronios managed to renovate it, selling his property in the Peloponnese. He turns it into a nunnery, which even accommodated 100 nuns. In 1833, by decree, 417 monasteries were closed throughout Greece – including that of Agia Marina. Her miraculous icon is bought by the Empirikos family and transferred to the Holy Church of Panagia, in Chora. In 1975, the then Metropolitan of Syros, Dorotheos, passing by the ruins of the Monastery, asked his deacon, Kyprianos Heimonas, to restore the Monastery. Something that happens in the following years. The monastery became widely known for the miracle of the healing of a small child from Cyprus.
Pythara Waterfalls
A place straight out of a fairy tale. It is a destination that does not resemble the Cyclades and will be unforgettable.
The Pythara Falls in Andros are located in Apoikia, ten minutes from the road. To get there we will go through a smooth path, full of vegetation, a fairy-tale route I would say, which predisposes you to the beauty you will encounter in the “Fairy Land” as popular tradition calls it.
The Pythara Falls in Andros are located in Apoikia, ten minutes from the road. To get there we will go through a smooth path, full of vegetation, a fairy-tale route I would say, which predisposes you to the beauty you will encounter in the “Fairy Land” as popular tradition calls it.
Its abundant waters run rapidly and create an amazing habitat. Waterfalls and lakes are formed in the green landscape where aquatic life abounds.
Like a dream with elves and enchanted forests, this is the only way to describe Fairyland. Only if you walk, smell, bathe, experience this magical place, dismiss the waters and listen to the cicadas you will feel what cannot be easily described in words. Pythara Falls is a small ecosystem for many birds and amphibians.
At the same time, for rare species of plants and wild flowers that grow along the entire length of the ravine. Pythara is used to irrigate the fields, while from 1863 to 1936 its waters powered the largest water mill in the Balkans, the “Fabrica” a little further down in the village of Stenia. The springs are on Mount Petalo, in the Evrousies region, and the mouths are on Gyalia beach.
Leaving the waterfalls, right next to it we will visit the Spring of the Colonies, a place where people come from all over Andros to fill their traditional “pitchers”. A place where the Sariza bottled water factory is next door!
Village Mainites
And we complete our excursion by leaving you in the village of Mainites, where you will take a walk, sit down for a coffee or a meal, and enjoy the greenery and coolness of the running waters in the springs of the same name.
Information
Departure Point: Andros 4 All Seasons Villas & Suites Hotel, Ormos Korthiou,
Departure time: 09:00 am
Return time: 4:00 PM (approximately)
Price per person: €40.00
Minimum/Maximum participants: 4 people to 7 people
The price includes: your transfer to the respective location.
The excursion includes:
Transportation with the company’s luxury van
Driver
Public Liability Insurance
VAT
Excursion does not include:
Entrances to museums, caves, meals, drinks, soft drinks and coffees,
Insurance of medical care in accidents outside the bus,
Reservations
Email: Andros4allseasons@gmail.com,
Phone: 6973274771
