Proph. Elias-Vasaras

A fortified cave sits at the base of a rock, high on the slope above the road, roughly midway between the villages of Vasaras and Veria in Laconia. Far above it, on the rock's summit plateau, stands a chapel of Prophet Elias, which gives the site its name. The cave itself dates from around the eighteenth century, placing it in the Post-Byzantine period. Such fortified caves were common then, especially in the Peloponnese, and usually belonged to a monastery or hermitage, serving as both places of worship and refuges for locals. They were also used at times as hideouts by klephts and armatoloi, which explains their defensive character. Here, however, no church or other building stands inside or beside the fortification, and there was certainly no monastery, probably no hermitage either. It was most likely the lair of a klepht. Its condition today is not good, and nothing more is known of its story.