Religious Monuments

Meganisi has a rich religious past and a number of quite remarkable monuments of the Christian faith (monasteries and churches) that are scattered on the island and are a pole of attraction for visitors interested in the religious tradition of a place.

Agioi Apostoloi: Parish church of Katomeri and until 1912 also of Vatheos. It is a single-aisled basilica like the temples of the city of Lefkada. It was built in the 1840s. It has a carved iconostasis, the work of a worthy artist, and icons of the hagiographers Gazi and Patzaras.

Agios Vissarionas: When in the early 1900s the epidemic of blessing was ravaging the people in Vathi, they brought the Saint’s cart from the Trikala Gate to Meganisi and prayed to defeat the disease. In commemoration of this event, the church of the same name was built, which has a iconostasis by the artist Ioannis Vrettos, made in 1921, as well as icons by the iconographers Urania Gazis (daughter of Spyros Gazis), Leonidas Sideris, the self-taught Stathis Argyris and a refugee named Paraskeva.

Agios Vasileios: Now a ruined church outside Vathi (only some pieces of tiles can be found).

Agios Gerasimos: A small church adjacent to Vatheos – Katomeriou street. It was built after 1980.

Agios Georgios: The parish church of Spartochori, Basilica style. It is the third that was built in the same place, around 1920, after the two demolished predecessors that were built in 1876 and 1732 respectively. The temple is fraternal. That is, according to Venetian law, it belonged to those who built it with their donations and maintained it with their subscriptions. Regarding the icon of Spyros Gazis “the 12-year-old Jesus”, which was burned in the great fire that destroyed the church itself, Leonidas Sideris said: “If it was saved, the church could be rebuilt with its value.”

Agios Grigorios: Old church in the Kefali area, near a large miraculous well.

Agios Konstantinos: A single-aisled Royal church, with a built icon, located on the hill above Vathi and opposite Katomeri, built before 1479. Around it extends the cemetery of the neighboring villages, the area of which, along with the renovation of the church, was donated to the church by a shipowner of Meganisi named Malamas.

Agios Ilias: Small church after Katomeri towards the south. It was built before 1980 in the place where a small shrine stood, which reminded the place of the old temple destroyed by pirates around 1700.

Holy Monastery of Agios Ioannis: It is built on the eponymous pebble beach in the west of the island. Its current form does not allow any kind of safe conclusion about the first church, but archaeological estimates place its foundation at least two centuries before the destruction of the 15th century.

The church was destroyed around 1477, apparently by the arrival of the Turks and the sacking of all of Lefkada, as evidenced by the inscription on the western lintel: “1877. AFTER 400 YEARS IT WILL BE REVOCATED.” The tradition wants to be destroyed by pirates, who threw the image of the Saint into the sea, which was retrieved in the nets of a fisherman.

In 1800 the monk Ioannis Patrikis, from a rich family and very beloved both in Ithaca and Meganisi, sent a nun to rebuild it. It is said that this nun, with her helper Vassilis Politis from Meganisio, ministered for years to achieve her goal, she even went as far as the Tsar of Russia to collect the necessary funds.

In the end he succeeded, the monastery was rebuilt and the nun stayed there until her death. Her tomb is located between the foundations of the old and new walls of the sanctuary.

Agios Nektarios: The first Byzantine-style church that was built in Meganisi. It is located to the right of Vatheos bay. It was built in 1969.

Agios Nektarios (second with the same name): A small church outside of Katomeri, next to the road to Panagia. It was built after 1969, in the place where the eponymous iconostasis of Panos Daglas – Kainourgios previously existed.

Agios Nikolaos: The church of the cemetery (donation of the shipowner Malamas) of Spartochori in Missoi.

Agios Nikolaos (second with the same name): Ruined little church, near the root of a thousand-year-old olive tree, located on the left side of the port of Kouteladon.

Panagia (Assumption of the Virgin Mary): Church with a cemetery next to the Katomeri – Spartochori road. Celebrates on August 15.

Churches of Smaller Islands

Zoodochos Pigi: Church of Panagia on the island of Thilia. It is celebrated after Easter, on the Friday of Holy Week.

Panagitsa of Skorpiou: There is the mausoleum with the tombs of Aristotle Onassis and his children: Alexandrou and Christina.

Saint John and Anastasia: Gothic church on the north side of Madouri. Next to it lies the grave of Olga Valaoritou, the poet’s daughter.