Local Attractions

BAPTIST MONASTERY

The Baptist Monastery (Moni Prodromou) is built on the root of a cliff on the left side of the ravine of Lousios, near the villages of Stemnitsa and Dimitsana. The landscape is impressive and reminiscent of Meteora and Mega Spilaio.

The church of St. John the Baptist is a single-domed basilica and decorated with remarkable frescoes. Murals also exist outside the church magnetizing the look of every visitor. This monastery became a priory monastery  probably in the 16th century. However by the 12th century flourished many important hermitages at that place, with most know, that of John the Baptist. During the Turkish occupation (16th cent.) the hermitages were combined and the monastery was founded.

During the revolution of 1821, the monastery became a refuge and hospital for the fighters. In 1834 the monastery closed due to a decree, which dissolved the monasteries which had less than 7 monks. However, in 1838, the monastery was repopulated and it flourished in both physical and mental aspects.

Workshops for painting and sewing sacred garments operate in the monastery today and there is also a remarkable collection of about 1000 books. The Baptist Monastery of, is continuing the old traditions and exist as a religious and cultural center of the region. The number of visitors who flock each year is huge, because apart from the spiritual uplift, the monastery is built in a landscape of indescribable beauty, on towering cliffs, inside lush vegetation and under the sound of the waters of Lucius River.

LOUSIOS GORGE

The canyon of Lousios isone of the major sights of Arcadia. It is a place highly charged historically and religiously, an area of rare and majestic natural beauty, one of the most impressive gorges in Greece. Also known as the Holy Mountain of Peloponnese, due to the many historic monasteries, hermitages and churches. The monastic life was very intense in the region, especially during the Turkish occupation.

The river Lucius owes its name to ancient mythology. According to this, and as mentioned by Pausanias, the newborn Zeus bathed hidden from Saturn to the waters of the river (Πηγές των Αθανάτων), (springs of Immortals) by nymphs Neda, Agno and Theisoa. Later  the river renamed to Gortynios, by the town of Ancient Gortys. Pausanias described Lousios as the coldest river of the world.

The gorge has wild and unspoiled beauty and rich, lush vegetation which are ideally combined with the wildness of gray and sheer cliffs. It's full of evergreen and broadleaf species and in many parts there is cypress. Gorge’s slopes are full of oaks, hornbeam, laurel, maples, oaks, hidden, sfakes, willows, sycamores, osiers, myrtle, ostryes, alder, elm, sorbic and various creepers. Especially in spring, the rich flora provides a wealth of colors and. At the eastern and northern slopes there are fir trees trees that form the edges of Mainalo forests.

ANCIENT GORTYS

The name of the ancient Gortys or Gortyn, as usually named after the classic ancient times, leading some to assume that the current Karytaina place name is a corruption of the name of the second type. It lies on the right bank of the river Gortyni, who in the upper reaches was named Lucius, because there was bathied the baby Zeus, a name which it still retains today. The approach of the ancient city is possible from the village Atsicholos or, even easier, from a rural road west of the village Elliniko (formerly Moulatsi), located on the public road Karytaina -Dimitsana. The distance from Atsicholos is about half an hour.