8 Best Sights in The Northern Aegean Islands, Greece

The enormous five-domed post-baroque church of Agios Therapon, completed in 1935, was designed by architect Argyris Adalis, an islander who studied under Ernst Ziller, the prolific architect of so many of the municipal buildings in Athens. The church is dedicated to Saint Therapon, whose name means "healer," and it's been visited by many people who came to Lesvos to recuperate from illness. It has an ornate interior, a frescoed dome, and there's a Byzantine museum in the courtyard that's filled with religious icons.

This vestige of ancient Mytilini is within a pine grove and freely accessible. One of the largest theaters in ancient Greece is from the Hellenistic period and seated an estimated audience of 10,000. Pompey admired it so much that he copied it for his theater in Rome. Though the marbles are gone, the shape, carved into the mountain, remains beautifully intact.

Superseding the previous neoclassical mansion that housed the old museum, Mytilini's new archaeological museum contains finds from prehistoric Thermi, mosaics from Hellenistic houses, and reliefs of comic scenes from the 3rd-century Roman house of Menander, as well as temporary exhibits.

Stroll the main bazaar street, Ermou, which goes from the port on the north side of town to the port on the south side. Walk past the fish market on the southern end, where men haul in their sardines, mullet, and octopus. Narrow lanes are filled with antiques shops and grand old mansions.

The home of Stratis Eleftheriadis, better known by his French name, Teriade, houses a luminous collection of French art, much of which appeared in his highly influential Paris publications Minotaure and Verve. Among the works on display are lithographs done for the publisher/collector/critic by Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Rouault, Giacometti, and Miró. The house is set among the olive trees of Varia and is also home to the Museum of Theophilos.

Sitting amid olive groves this museum houses a large number of the eponymous artist's "naive," precise neo-Hellenic works, detailing the everyday life of local folk such as fishermen and farmers, and polytheical fantasies of another age. Theophilos lived in poverty but painted airplanes and cities he had never seen. He painted in bakeries for bread, and in cafés for ouzo, and walked around in ancient dress. For a time, he lived inside a tree that can be seen in the hamlet of Karini.