Eresos - The Place We Call Home

Located in the southwest part of the stunning Greek island of Lesbos, beyond the harsh landscape between the mountains is a huge green valley with a village at the top. This picturesque oasis is Eresos - the place we call home. It is a window into the stunning geological history of the Aegean for the last 20 million years.

Standing four kilometres above sea level between dry volcanic blocks, it takes its name from the son of the legendary King Makaras, who is believed to be the very first settler of the island in ancient times. Here too was born the great lyric poet of antiquity, Sappho (the “female Homer”) and philosophers, Theophrastus and Fanny.

Eresos was built between the eleventh and ninth centuries B.C. by Aeolians, at a spot now known as Vigla, on a hill on the southern side of Skala Eresos. In the seventeenth century A.D. the town was moved to a more mountainous area, about six kilometres from the sea. It was liberated from Ottoman domination in 1912.

Eresos has a rich tradition in the arts and letters, botany and natural remedies. The nearby hot springs of Lesvos have been known since antiquity with people flocking to them as a recommended cure of chronic diseases: rheumatism, arthritis, skin diseases, sciatica of the hip joint, myalgic pain, illnesses of the womb.