The former queen of Lemnos is panting as she climbs the path that leads her to what is left of the Kotsina Castle. She gazes at the sea and descends to the “sanctuary” in search of safety.
After 1136, the area of Kotsina is mentioned as a safe commercial port that gradually replaced the port of the “hundred heads” of Hephaestia. The name “Kotsinas” comes from the red colour of the soil in the area.
The area began to show a growth in population during the Venetian period (1207-76), when the castle was built by the Navigayozi, the Venetian dukes of Lemnos. It then passed to the Palaiologoi and was rebuilt in 1361. In 1408 it was given as a fief to the widow of John VII Palaiologos, Eugenia Gatelouzi, who lived and died there in 1440. The Kotsina Castle stood at the top of an artificial hill 20 metres in height and occupied an area of about four acres. It was surrounded by a moat that communicated with the sea, while on the northern side the wall foundations rested in the water, with their remains surviving to this day. Its fortifications were six metres high. In the 15th century it was heavily attacked by the Ottomans. Inside the castle was built the church of Zoodochos Pigi, which is mentioned as early as 1415. The church was built over an underground well – ‘Sacred Spring’ – that reaches almost to sea level by descending 64 steps. The “Sacred Spring” took its present form in 1918, while the present church was built in 1954.