The Kapsia Caves and Agia Foteini

The Kapsia Caves located in the Menalo region are a hidden gem. They are a fairyland storybook.

An excellent guide led us through the caves of delicate stalactites and stalagmites, nature’s works of art that take thousands of years to form.

The cave’s history dates back to the 4th and 5th centuries BC. Human remains and clay utensils discovered in the cave, prove that centuries ago it was inhabited.
A huge flood is said to have killed the residents of the cave.
There are vast areas that are still to be uncovered and explored.

Agia Foteini of Mantineia is a ten-minute drive from the Kapsia Caves. This eccentric, charming
Greek Orthodox church was designed by the architect Costa Papatheodorou, who collected cast-off stones, tiles, bricks, marble, and mosaics from surrounding villages.

The church was designed to create the illusion of motion and the feeling that the Holy Spirit moves around its axis. Therefore, it doesn’t have any specific front or back.

The higgledy-piggledy façade gives Agia Foteini a unique appeal. It sits on a vast, open, peaceful plain of green fields surrounded by distant mountains.
The church was built in 1975 and inaugurated in 1978.

A monument resembling a small temple sits in the church courtyard. It is dedicated to those heroes who defended Greece in the war against the Turks, while a circular columned fountain known as Jacob’s Well is reminiscent of the well where Christ met the Samaritan woman and asked for water.

Don’t miss these two memorable sites in the Peloponnese.