Sangri & the Temple of Demeter

The village of Sangri is an agglomeration of several villages in a valley below Mount Profitias Elias. There's a deserted 16th-century monastery, Timios Stavros, on the mountain's lower slopes and the remains of a 13th-century Venetian kastro on its summit. The temple of Demeter is signposted (5km/3 miles) out of Stavri. Until about 10 years ago, the temple, built in the 6th century B.C., was in a state of complete ruin; it had been partially dismantled in the 6th century A.D. to build a chapel on the site, and what was left was plundered repeatedly over the years. Then, it was discovered that virtually all the pieces of the original temple were on the site, either buried or integrated into the chapel. A long process of reconstruction began. Most of the work has been completed, and it's possible to see the basic form of the temple -- one of the few known square-plan temples. There's also a small site museum, often irritatingly closed.

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