Aghios Mamas

The first known reference to Vatopaidi possessions in the village of Aghios Mamas in Chalcidice dates from 1301. Owing to the upheavals of the mid 14th century, Vatopaidi was obliged to construct a fortress in the area (1357/1358). In 1369 the Great Domesticus* Alexius Lascaris Metochites donated an area of land to the Monastery totalling 13,000 modia at “Stylarion”, near the tower of Aghios Mamas. In 1415 the boundaries were fixed for the three “fishing grounds” which had already belonged to Vatopaidi for 50 years.

The ‘cathedra’ of the metochion, which was dedicated to St George, was located at the place where today’s Agricultural Research Station stands – near the shrine of St Mamas. The tower was erected a little before 1329²⁴ and was destroyed at the beginning of this century. Of this great metochi there then remained only about 400 hectares, and these were expropriated in 1930.