The stunning Panagia Kakaviotissa Church (dedicated to the Virgin Mary) on the picturesque northeastern Aegean island of Limnos is considered as among the very rare – if not the only – chapel in the world purposely built without a roof.
Erected by Eastern Orthodox monks on the island, the church gained its epithet ” Kakaviotissa” from Mt. Kakavos, where it is located.
The chapel lies close to the small village of Zemata, and some four kilometers from the island’s main port and capital, Myrina
The chapel was built around 1300 as a place where hermit monks chose to live, work and pray. In 1305, the chapel came under the possession of the Monastery of Great (Megisti) Lavra , when monks from the nearby isle of Aghios Efstratios, who were affiliated with the Monastery, relocated to the remote and mountainous site to avoid raids by the Ottoman Turks.
