A Revelation

A Revelation

Greece
Aegean SeaDodecanese
island of Patmos

The tiny island of Patmos in Aegean Sea is well famous for housing the cave in which St John had retired, later in his life and wrote the Apocalypse( The Revelation) and also for the old St John fortress/monastery built in 1088 bythe Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus with a great library housing more than 300 manuscripts including 82 of the New Testament among them.
However architects around the world speak of another revelation also and insist that the most outstanding feature the island has to provide is its Chora (the capital town), one of the most impressive among those of the Greek islands.
This unique architectural complex, situated at the highest point of the island(quite usual in the islands to avoid pirates and other hostile attacks) is a bizarre maze of narrow streets being crossed vertically and horizontally by angles, corners, roofs, strange chimneys, terraces, doorsteps of little white houses built in a mixted rather expressionistic style of Byzantine, venetian western medieval and greek old provincial elements. Among them there are also several Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches and monasteries.
It's pure pleasure to stroll among them.