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Anastasiopolis-Peritheorion is an archaeological site located in northern Greece, southeast of the village of Amaxades. Today you can still see parts of the fortification walls of the ancient city of Anastasiopolis (5th – 9th centuries) and Peritheorion (9th century). It is unclear whether these are two different cities or a single one that has been renamed in the meantime. The ancient city was an important port on the Aegean Sea and station on the Via Egnatia.
Since no archaeological excavations were carried out, the approximately 7.3 hectare area of the city is in a wild state. The ruins are in the middle of a forest, which, however, only emerged since the 1970s. The most important archaeological remains are the walls, some of which are several meters high. City gates have been documented to the northwest and southeast, as well as eight predominantly rectangular, but partly also round, wall towers in the east. In the brickwork of some towers, monograms of the imperial family of the Palaiologoi have been preserved by means of integrated bricks, which can be dated to around 1341 and thus attest at least to construction work in this phase. However, the wall that is preserved today also shows traces of older construction phases, so that the older city wall, which dates back to late antiquity, probably also had the same course.
Despite the overgrowth of the entire city area as well as the wall to the Rhodope Mountains, at least one circular path is kept free, which leads to the ruins. There is no precise signage from the street. On the Xanthi-Komotini route, turn off at the underpass of the highway in the village of Amaxades and follow the paved dirt road. The remaining 2 km of dirt road are easy to drive without a 4WD. The entrance gate is on the north side. Since it is usually locked, you enter the ruins through the loose grille in the gate.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.