All about Zakynthos

Church of Panagia on the eastern side of the hill of the castle, preserved as a monastery at the end of the 15th century. Originally it was called Panagia tou Kaniossi (or Kanesi). When Stephen Pikridis, a priest and notary, was the parish priest from 1542 to 1590, it was called Panagia tou Pikridis or Pikridiotissa. In an underground building, revealed when they were digging to open the foundations, there were eight Doric columns and inside a square building was a marble statue of Bacchus. One of the columns is still there today in the courtyard of the temple. During the Venetian occupation, a lantern was placed on the column to light the road to the Castle, following the Strada Gustiniana, which started from the town of Aegialos and led to Terra, the town inside the Castle. A marble plaque, which has been inscribed by the late Nikolaos Varvianis in the bell tower of the church, recalls the incident with Theodoros Kolokotronis and his son Collino, according to which it was there that he decided to actively participate in the Greek Revolution, in 1819.