Historic Mithimna

  However little interest you may have in the past, it is impossible to escape it in Molivos.
 The first sight as you come over the headland from Petra is of the Byzantine castle,
nearly four hundred feet above the sea, dominating
 the town that drops away down the steep sides of
 the hill below.

 But Mithimna (its original and official name: Molivos
 was the Turkish name) was already more than
 two thousand years old when this final version of
 the castle was built. There is evidence of its existence from around 1000BC,
 and by two or three hundred years later it was the second most powerful city of Lesvos,
 controlling the whole of the north of the island from present-day Anaxos in the west
 across to the east coast and down to the head of the Gulf of Kalloni.
 The town was then two or three times its present size, with its walls stretching across
 the Dapia, (now the fields running across behind the town from the castle )
 to Cape Molivos and beyond.

 There have been several archaeological excavations on the Dapia; sections of buildings,
 walls and pavements are still there to be explored, and the whole area is strewn with
 fragments of pottery, from amphora handles to delicate decorated black slip-glazed
 ware, with more still being brought to the surface with each heavy rain.

  Almost the first thing you see on entering the town, at the junction next to the school,
 is the large excavation of a cemetery from the archaic
 period (more than two and a half thousand years ago),
 while the curved bank of the car park opposite
 behind the school, was once the city's theatre.

 Further along the road towards the harbour
 a large section of archaic 'Lesvian masonry' (otherwise called 'polygonal masonry', irregularly shaped stones cut to fit snugly together) and part of a building
 were exposed about five years ago during the construction of a new OTE telephone
 exchange and are now on display in situ.

In 2002 a Roman bath house was excavated behind the
 police station (which, with the local tax office,
 is built on part of the old city wall).
 It would have been fed from the aqueduct that
 brought water from the slopes of the Lepetimnos range,
 a solitary tower of which survives on a mound
 on the back road to Eftalou.

And in the autumn of 2003, on the road out of town towards Petra
 (just past the double bridge over the river), the laying of a new main drain
 was held up by the discovery of a group of Roman (?)
 farm buildings.

As I left in October 2003 a small paddock opposite
 the tourist office was being prepared for building.
 The excavator, together with its accompanying
 archaeologist, was beginning to dig foundations, with the site owners watching
 anxiously for any telltale signs of ancient remains which would immediately halt work
 and mean many months or years of delay to their development.
By summer 2005 a better-preserved extension to the next-door cemetery had appeared,
probably halting development for ever.
 Understandably, many Molivos residents regard their archaeological heritage as more
 of a burden than an asset.

Until the end of the 1990s the Town Hall housed an interesting archaeological museum,
 containing many finds from the area, together with a collection of photographs
  of the Greek Army campaign and the final expulsion of the Turkish forces
 from the island in 1912.
 Then the building was closed for renovations; the Mayor's office and the public library
 were 'temporarily relocated' but the museum collections were put into storage.
Since then building work seems to have come to a halt and any reopening date
 to be disappearing into the future.
(ps:-  Work resumed in 2006, and when I last looked,
in June 2007, seems to be nearing completion. 
Whether, and when, the archaeological collection will return remains to be seen)    

 Visible legacies of Turkish rule in the town mainly come from the end of their era.
  Apart from the fine nineteenth century mansions dotted around the town,
 built by both Turkish and Greek officials and merchants, the mosque was built
 in the centre of the town, partly on a bridge across the main street.
 It is now the community hall and theatre, but part of its minaret survives
 on the wall of the courtyard outside.

And in the last quarter of the nineteenth century came the reintroduction of plumbing,
 with the erection of water fountains throughout the town, and the building
 of the public baths.
 Many of the fountains survive, some still with their Turkish inscriptions,
 though most have lost their water supply. The baths, hidden away up a flight of steps
 opposite the post office, are closed, in a state of increasing collapse,
 and awaiting much needed restoration.
 

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