JANUARY 2000

• Wondering around
• Worth seeing
• Historical background, monuments

• Picture show
• Where to stay
• How to get there, area map

Leaving Psarades in a boat for the hermitage of the Eleoussa, we pass a small stretch of shore with a bay, in which the hermitage of Metamorphosis stands, protected by the rocks. Steps lead to the aisleless vaulted church. It has 3 apses at the eastern end, the walls are built of stone and mortar and traces of frescos have survived in the vault.

Two sections of a Byzantine carved wooden iconostasis from the church have survived and are now in the Florina Museum. From the little evidence the Metamorphosis affords, we date it approximately in the 13^th century. The remains of the monks' cells can be distinguished on the north side of the church, where the rocks begin.

In the bay of the village of Psarades, 2 frescos depicting the Virgin Mary are painted on vertical rocks on the shore opposite the village, the one not far from the other. The first is dated in 1455/6 and the second one in 1373 A.C. Today they are both inaccessible from the land and traces of stone structures or chiseling on the rock show that these places were small hermitages.

Approaching by boat the rock were the two fresos are.

At the eastern edge of the village of Psarades stands a large basilica (23.35 x 12.2 m) dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin. It is timber-roofed with an open portico at its west end. According to the inscription on the arched lintel of the north entrance door and the two inscriptions on the north outside wall of the portico, it was built in 1893.

We have chronological evidence from the basilica for the construction of the iconostasisin 1901 and of the bell tower in 1915.