Gomati

This beautiful village is located 20km from Megali Panagia. Once there, you can access wonderful beaches such as Develiki, Kastri, Pyrgos, Hiliadou and many hidden ones near Arkouda cape such as Petalidi. According to archaeologist Julia Vokotopoulou, the ancient city Assira was located in the area. According to written sources, Gomati, or “the country of Gomato” was a part of Mount Athos up until the 9th century. The monastery of Panagia (Virgin Mary) of Gomati  made it the “Seat of the Elders”. A great part of it belonged to the monasteries of Megisti (Great) Lavra, Iviron, Dionisiou and Xiropotamou. According to a version, Gormatos, a general of the Byzantine Empire, had in his jurisdiction the area of the island Lemnos, where a village named Gomatou (and later Gomati) existed. Many of its residents fled from Limnos due to pirate raids. Some of them fled to northern Halkidiki, to a forested and inaccessible -but safe from the pirates- area where they built Gomati.

Old Gomati, remains of which are still preserved, is 4km away from today’s settlement and was protected by 3 towers named Orfanou, Kounoupi and Develikisa. The village existed alongside the monastery of Theotokos of Gomatou before 942. According to a study of Aggeliki Laiou, professor of the University of Harvard, in the late Byzantine era it was one of the largest of the Theme of Thessalonica. In 1400 it became a dependency of Megistis Lavras monastery. Only the ruins of the tower of Orfanos are preserved nowadays. The church of St. Athanasios the Athonite* was built within it.The village was relocated due to the destruction of the old one by the 1932 earthquake.

*Source: Records of the Cultural Educational Association of Gomatians of Thessaloniki.

Info

-Since the Byzantine era, the main agricultural products of the people living here are cereals, oil, wine, honey and raki. From the Ottoman rule era, most of the male population worked in the Sidirokafsia-Mademochoria mines.

-The largest celebration-feast in Gomati, takes place in the main temple of Assumption of Theotokos, on August 15.

ROUTE

From Megali Panagia to old Gomati

You follow the signs to the Pilgrimage of Megali Panagia from the center of Megali Panagia village. After the last sign to the left, you drive straight and enter the dirt road that used to be a cobbled road. After 5,3km without taking any of the side roads, you pass from the fountain and the recreation space to a locaction called Manna. In approximately 8km you will see on each side of the road the few ruins of the οld Gomati that was leveled by the 1932 earthquake. At 8,4 km you can step out of your car and search for the byzantine tower, located on the left of the mountain’s foot. Approximately 2km further down, you will see on the road the double arched bridge of St. George, beside of which a cobbled path that leads to a cave begins. Having travelled 13km in total and leaving the bridge behind, you arrive behind a church at the new village of Gomati.