Best sightseeings of Siatista, Kozani

Apart from its magnificent and historic mansions, Siatista also has to offer 26 Byzantine or newer churches.

The church of Saint Paraskevi and Saint Catherine, located in the lower quarter in a square called GERANEIA, is the oldest of the temples surviving today. Built in 1677, in Byzantine style, is vaulted with domes and arches. Its exquisite gilt, carved with gold deserves special attention but also the paintings that adorn both the temple and the walls. The paintings are works of the religious Cretan painter / painter Theodore Poulaki. In the loft above the temple the ancient philosophers (Plutarch , Aristotle, Plato , Thucydides , Solon , Sibyl ) are depicted which symbolizes, in one aspect, the effect of the Ancient Greece on Christianity .

The church of the Prophet Elias, built in 1701 and renovated in 1740, has also a carved and gilded temple, with wooden ceilings, frescoes and a raised womens loft, like Saint Paraskevi. These temples were characterized as preserved monuments by the Greek Ministry of Culture.

The Cathedral of Siatista is Saint Demetrios, which was first built in 1647, caught fire in 1910 and was built again a year later taking its current form, designed by the local architect Aristotelis Zachos. The steeples of the churches of Agia Paraskevi in ​​Gerania and St. Demetrios in the centre stand in awe.

The Manousian Central Public Historical Library [1 ] hosts rare editions of the 15th , 16th , 17th , 18th , 19th century. For example, the oldest books in the library are 9th Comedy of Aristophanes, Venice 1498, Xyngrafi of Thucydides and Greek of Xenophon, Venice 1502-1504 and Complete Works of Homer 1504.

 The Trampantzeio high school of Siatistas ( 1888 ) houses the historical Palaeontological Collection of fossils belonging to proboscides who lived in the area hundreds of thousands years before, providing information about their life and extinction [2 ] .

=Finally, It is worth to visit the Folklore museum Mansion Dolgkira and the traditional residence of Christos Tsiotsiou - Tatiana Nterou with its rich collection of folk art objects from the area of ​​Siatista.

*Read the whole guide of Siatisa*

Words: Liza Kokkidou    Photographs: Giorgos Chasparis

[1] http://www.siatistabibl.gr/

[2]  http://www.siatistanews.gr/palaiontologiko/001neo.html