Church of Life-giving Spring

The Church of Life-giving Spring stands in Stemnitsa, a mountain village in the Municipality of Gortynias, Arcadia, as a Byzantine-era sanctuary and a protected building of Greece. Its setting carries unusual depth: the surrounding land holds traces of archaic, classical, and Hellenistic occupation, and the ancient settlement nearby had already fallen into ruins by the time the traveler Pausanias passed through. Across so many centuries, this ground has kept its association with spiritual life, and the church continues that long continuity as a place of worship and local devotion.