Stone Flowers
The masons of Lagadia without a question have left behind a local inheritance of exquisite buildings, which today have been characterized as contemporary monuments, like the High School building of Lagadia (see pic) and the church of Taxiarches, on the main road.Other renowned such sites are the house of the Deligiannis family - a famous local family that played a leading role during the Greek Revolution of 1821 and the early years of the Greek State - and the church of Agios Ioannis across it.
There is also the mansion of the Rigopoulos family in the upper part of the village and other equally remarkable traditional stone buildings, which despite not being under any official state of protection, are not lacking in beauty.
Nowadays most of those traditional buildings (and remnants) are situated as single residential complexes in the lower part of Lagadia. Some of them stand out for their unique morphology or their impressive architecture in some parts. The simple residences, old shops and workshops, roads without cars, all look like an outdoor museum. Considering the small elevation differences, given the fact that Lagadia are built on the mountain side, this makes a walk around easy.
We merely placed some of these sites on a map, just to offer you an incentive to discover them yourselves.
Marketplace
The center of the village is the main square. A square of plane trees and a view of an evergreen mountain. Within a walking distance of 400m, from the old municipal hotel to the church of Taxiarches, are all the stores and shops that cover most of the visitors’ needs. Coffee shops, bars, grocery shops, restaurants, taverns, gift shops with traditional products and many more. Lagadia also has an ATM and a Citizens Service Center.
Just like the whole of Gortynia, Lagadia flourished during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the decade of 1890s in fact they were the largest town of Arcadia, second only to Tripoli, with a population of almost 7000 residents. From the middle of the 20th century however Lagadia witnessed an inevitable decline. This is due to the dramatic changes in the production and economic model of contemporary Greece, and the phenomenon of urbanism that was observed all over the Greek countryside.Moreover of course because of the external immigration that took place around the same period.
Lagadia are the home place of Kanelos Deligiannis, of Karavogiannis, of Dimitrios Dimitrakopoulos - Vogizas, and also of Nikos Ploubidis.
