Seven kilometres to the North-East of Neohori, on the way to Tsangarada, you will find the settlement of Plaka, whose name owes its origin to the plates mined from stone pits in the region. Third largest settlement in the Neohori area, it was an important Aegean harbour during the Middle Age. A little of its history is told by the writer G. A. ZAHARIOY in his book "NEOHORI of PILION" (Volos, 1990). In the years of Ottoman domination (1453 - 1821) Neohori Captains would leave from Avlaki, a natural port, sailing to Istanbul, Konstanza, Triestre, Alexandria of Egypt and various other Mediterranean ports to deliver many of the local products of the Pelion region. Due to this sea trade Neohori and its neighborhood expanded and by 1700 Plaka was already the most important settlement of the area by the Aegean, a rank that it keeps still nowadays.
During the early Christian and Byzantine period there was a continuous population expansion along with active commercial activities. Plaka was protected against pirates by fortifications, called Palaiocastro, built as part of the fortifications erected in the Aegean, where the small castle of Saint Dimitrios and that of Skiathos date from the Byzantine period.
The monastery of the Virgin Mary (Panagitsa), that raises in the middle of the settlement, was built in 1655, probably over the ruins of an older temple by early Christians, as reported by the writer MARIA FALZONE-RIZOU in her book "The Virgin Mary the Plakiotissa in Neohori of Pelion".
page 1 of 2
