Agiasos is a mountainous town located in the interior of the island at a distance of 27 kilometers from the city of Mytilini. The traditional settlement is built at an altitude of 460 meters, on the slopes of Mount Olympus and preserves elements of the traditional architecture as well as the peculiar urban planning and layout plan.
The area was initially a center of attraction because of the icon of the Virgin Mary that was brought by the priest of the palaces, Agathon, coming from Jerusalem, at the end of 803 AD. The hermitage developed into a monastery and its fame went beyond the limits of not only the region but also the island. When in 1701 Agiasos was exempted by ottomans from paying taxes, the influx of people from neighboring areas was impressive. However, because the area around the monastery was not suitable for habitation, the new monastery was built in the place where the church of Panagia is today and the village began to be organized around the perimeter in the shape of a funnel.
Most of the settlements of Lesvos are perched on mountain slopes and the main roads follow the elevational curves of the terrain while the secondary ones are perpendicular to them. This standard arrangement does not apply in the case of Agiasos as the central ones are perpendicular to the elevational curves which lead to the center of the settlement and the church of Panagia. The church is located at the lowest point of the settlement which develops around the perimeter in the form of a basin.
This peculiar layout also determined the way Agiasos was built. Steep slopes dictate, for reasons of stability, the configuration of narrow-fronted houses in such a way that their walls create resistance to each other. Steep uphill roads have a groove in the middle to facilitate their handling. The continuous building system without empty spaces gives the urban character of the settlement, with a characteristic feature of the buildings located at the sharp corners of the traffic axes.
As mentioned above, because the courtyards are absent, greenery is located on the balconies of the buildings and bridges the streets, which for the Saints are “living” spaces. In the central square where the coffee shops are located and as the morphology of the ground allows, the buildings are shaped in such a way as to unify the interiors with the exteriors through large openings that are closed with glazing.
The architecture shows many similarities with the buildings of the Asia Minor coast both due to the building materials and the construction methods. The main traditional materials, stone and wood, come either from local sources or from the opposite coast. The needs for building materials were largely covered by the island as the volcanic rocks of the northern part (in the form of tuffs) have a compact structure and quality, which makes them suitable for processing and the wood is supplied from the rich forests of the island (pine, chestnuts, poplars, cypresses).
Stone was used in the foundations and in the vertical load-bearing structure. The external walls are made of stonework while sometimes layers of bricks are inserted according to the Byzantine model. The last floor is lighter as it is made of Baghdadi while for the mortars lime, sand, clay and khurasani were used.
