Naxos – CENTRAL AND SOUTHWESTERN NAXOS – iii.Chora – Galanado – Sangri – Apaliros – Aghiasos – Aghios Sozon – Aghiasos

Aghiasós
South of Lathrina and of Apaliros Castle, the valley is flat and opens out to east and west; it is run through by seasonal torrents, the vegetation is sparse and interspersed with outcrops of rock. From Aghiasos (24km), two 13th century painted churches can be visited in the low hills to the east: the Panaghia at Archato (N), reached by back tracking 4km to the northeast—a church of curious form which has developed by additions over time, and which conserves paintings, dated to 1285 from an inscription with the names of artist and patrons; and the remarkable church of the Panaghia Giallous (13) which lies substantially inland from the shore to the south, at 4.5km from Aghiasos. This is a small, rural, ‘mausoleum-type’ church. What is interesting here is the quite distinct personality of the artist, who was working in the penultimate decade of the 13th century. One of the several clearly visible in scriptions (which are all votive entreaties of individuals, or of husbands and wives) is dated with the year 6796 since creation, i.e. 1288/89. The artist’s colours are rich and the faces he depicts are sensitive and subdued, yet with a graceful and quite idiosyncratic elongation. The faces of the Baptist in the conch and of Christ on the south wall are particularly worthy of note: they are without any rigidity. The church was originally a small, domed square: the ex tension to the west is of later date. The coastal track south along the coast to the tip of the island, ends at the tiny Byzantine church of Aghios Sozon Kalantou (30km), built into the rocks in gratitude for the safe rescue of sailors from a shipwreck.