Church of St. John

In the village of Kounos, within the municipality of Eastern Mani, the Church of St. John preserves the quiet dignity of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture on the southern Peloponnese. This single-nave church keeps the architectural traditions of its era, standing in a landscape long inhabited, near the ancient promontory of Thyrides Akra. Its story reaches into the modern period as well. In 1971, two Byzantine single-nave churches were recorded in the village cemetery; the following year they were cleaned and consolidated, and excavation revealed tombs and Byzantine remains.