Panagia Kamariotissa Church

The church behind the harbour

A street back from the seafront in Kamariotissa stands the church of the Virgin Mary that gave the port town its name. It is famous for the icon of Panagia Kamariotissa, regarded as a protector of the town and the island.

The legend of the icon

The story goes that in the 9th century, in the years when icons were banned, three fishermen saw a light in the bay where the port is today. Rowing out, they found a box floating in the waves with an icon inside, marked as coming from Kamares. Tradition places that village on the Sea of Marmara; another version links the icon to a monastery of the same name near Istanbul. The fishermen built a chapel close to where they landed, and a village grew around it.

When the present church replaced an older one from 1837 in the 1970s, builders uncovered the remains of an early Christian church from the 5th or 6th century, though they were not preserved.

The feast

Every year on Maundy Thursday, the day tradition says the icon was set in its place, the town celebrates its church. After the service, grilled fish, mostly sardines, is handed out to everyone. The shaded churchyard has a few benches, a good place to wait for a ferry.