DROTA'S HOSTORY
Drota - Beach
From the Plateau plateau, on the left the road leads to Drota beach! The descent to Drota from Akrasi is an adventure in a natural monument of wild beauty, with the river as its protagonist and creator.
The ravine of Priona here, before it goes out to the sea, is awe-inspiring. Opposite the mountain, stone, with steep slopes and pines stuck like decals, disappears in the background. From this side, the west, they managed to build the road on the shiny ophiolite, next to the pines.
The winding descent to "Tartara" takes about three kilometers. In two places the road had "stung".
Think winter. They had recently widened the road somewhat and put cement on the bends! Finally, the road from Akrasi, in 2022, was paved for 2.5 kilometers, up to the first turn of the descent! It will probably be completed all the way to the sea! It descends without end and you should not forget about the beauty.
Suddenly you find the river. A large plane tree and to your left, lost in the greenery, some roofs emerge.
In 1989 it was the derelict Drota. A small path, so da, next to the plane tree, led you into the ruin. Because of the 15-20 houses, half were in ruins. Five or six kept well. Small, doll-like but with an iron balcony.
Now, for several years, they have been renovated quite a bit and some people live here! Roads are paths. Gathered together, one next to the other, like a honeycomb, obeying the laws of those terrible times, pirate raids and exanderapodism, they were built here, in the river, unseen.
The alley ends at another plane tree, with a modern fountain.
You step on the ruins. A painted bow read WHEN!!! The phone would be there somewhere. Silence everywhere in summer, since even the river has no water.
At the edge of the settlement we found Agia Paraskevi, a small church. But the parish church of the now deserted settlement is Agios Nikolas. In the middle, a wooden bridge takes us across, to the other bank, where the small, single-aisled church is built on a somewhat elevated part.
Old, paved, now renovated. A series of pews and an iconostasis make it double-aisled (north aisle). All wooden. The iconostasis, simple without ornaments, the lectern, the pews (three rows). Despite the carnage around, she is well-groomed. The roof on the facade comes quite far out (supported by the two horizontal beams of the church), creating a nice architectural ensemble. The bell hangs from the beam. In the north wall, a smaller, side door led to the left (women's) aisle. Above the central gate, a plaque is engraved with the cypress and the founding inscription, next to the cross: SAINT NICHOLAS 1871 JUNE
Next to it, the "minimal" cemetery of the deserted village. A marble tomb. Behind him, the hillside is covered with olive trees. 2-3 families lived here in the winter and picked the olives. They are accompanied by the ruins and the roar of the river, which one must experience to feel it. We find the small village in codes of 1762, 1863-1865. Taxis in 1909 mentions it without a "community" and inhabited by 15-20 families. Their children were climbing the "mountainous" Acrasi. In 1936 it has 180 workers and fishermen and 1 cafe.
Towards the Beach
ΑFrom here the road crosses the river and descends to its left. Another one has been built, on the western slope! After the bridge, the ravine opens into a narrow strip of fertile land, with olive trees, fig trees and a few houses.
In the soil, which the river has been "spreading" around for years now. The road stops inside the coastal settlement. On the left they have built a cemented parking lot! Ten families lived in 1988. Fishermen from Plomari. Their boats moored on the beach, where there is no harbor.
So in the winter, when the southerner is lysomaniac, only three families stayed. In 1961, Kavarnos224 counted twenty-two houses here. We are greeted on the left by Agios Isidoros, a small church with a nice wooden roof in front, which was renovated in 1911. This Saint, Chiotis, is considered a "miracle worker".
Inside the previous church (small as a "lady"), as they say, he beat a fellow countryman who "blasphemed". Next to him, a "thousand-rooted" wild olive tree "hosted under its shadow Odysseus"!!!
These pieces of tradition, which are centuries old, were kept in 1988 by the coffee shop, a native of Drota.
For 1910 here there was only this small cafe with the gazebo, "a place impossible to describe", and the "saint". In front, a plane tree, only 19 years old, with dense shade and benches around, next to the now useless well. Because the fountain beyond has plenty of water, which comes down from Drota.
The houses, in 1988, were all with deeply shaded yards, covered by "fridges" with vines and climbers. Two of them were centers in 1988, which offered food. Electricity came in 1985!
Now several houses have been renovated and some new ones have been built! There, in a large building, there is Restaurant Drota, a good restaurant, with a wonderful view of the sea! Its beach, with fine pebbles, is one of the most beautiful on the island. It also has a "shower"!
To the west it is cut by a brown, tall mountain full of pine trees. The river also flows here. The houses are located at the mouth of the valley. After the pebbles, where the Aegean licks them in winter. To the east the beach goes on and on. This end of it is closed by the steep marble volume, which hides behind its ridges, inaccessible, the Hidden Virgin Mary. Shiny ridges, gray-green ophiolite and the soft green of the pine, blend with the crystal sea, a heavenly place.
The boats that now make routes from Plomari to Vatera, catch this beach. Perhaps this place is no longer as I saw it and longed for it. Its isolation kept it somewhat pristine. But the road must go down here!
Opposite the chapel, on the side of the road, are thrown the three pieces of the marble ribbed column, which came out in 1960 and is mentioned by Charitonidis. At that time it was still monolithic and he concluded that it belonged to a settlement of late antiquity, probably early Christian whose remains he saw west of the settlement. It is Glyfia, where they also found graves. So it was an ancient settlement, here on the beach. Perhaps early Christian. It was drawn in and the inhabitants hid, in the safety of the ravine after many years when the sea threatened. Then it seems that viglators were guarding the Vigla of Priona and the Vigla of "Pigadi", on the other side.
Above Drota, I. Kontis notes in his Archaeological maps, signs of settlement from the Hellenistic years (320-167 BC). Maybe he meant the beach down here. Little by little, all of them went up to Acrasi, which, in turn, is bleeding.
(Makis Axiotis: Lesvos the Place in Time - From 20 million years to 2024. Volume B pg 61-63)
