Natural beauties of Skopelos
"St. John sto Kastri",

The text is part of the narration of the scholar Basilios D. Koukorinis from Glossa, "St. John sto Kastri" , that can be found on his book "The trip" page 19. The narration was first published 35 years ago in America.

Thanks o Papa Kostas Kallianos who told us about it and to Vasilis Tomanas for the permission to use it.

The Northern "wild" side of the island

At the northern side of the island which is covered in vineyards, olive trees, plum - almond - chestnut and pine trees, forgotten by people a long time ago, a part of the island, a huge rock, broke away and rolled into the waves of the sea.

St. John as you approach it ...

This rock is worshiped in abundance by the waves sent down by the north Aegean Sea. From afar it looks like a ruined fortress, their in the solitude of silence, where an unexplainable melancholy rules when in the late afternoon the sun goes down behind the island's ridge ...

Up there the islander's hand, with reverence and devoutness for the divine, based on deep feeling, pure and unshaken religious motivation its source, built a small chapel and baptized it with the name "St. John the beheaded". There he placed his venerable icon that it might have a home in terrible winter nights. The islanders have countless stories to tell about the Saint's icon. They say that before the building of the chapel the icon was seen hanging from an olive tree on the rock. Others say that they saw most clearly and in body the saint himself high up on the rock, inviting the faithful to come close to him.

This small and proud chapel watches the island incessantly and reminds the believers not to forget it… Regularly on benevolent days woman and girls from the villages go there on Saturday evenings, to light the oil lamps…

In the west of the chapel there is a yard wall of stone … if you decide with your soul trembling to climb down the steep narrow path you arrive at the hermitage. There, it is said underneath a big stone forming a cave, an unknown Christian led a hermit's life. The chapel celebrates on 29 of August .

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