Ramnous-Limiko Area

A designated Landscape of Special Natural Beauty and a protected area of 261.2 hectares that has a total perimeter of 6.6 km with a maximum altitude of 86 m and a minimum of 40.0 m. A hill with pines, oaks and bushes located just above the Euboean Sea and where the ruins of ancient Ramnous have been found. To the south stretches a small plain (Limiko Valley) with vines surrounded by hills with pine trees. The landscape has been preserved and hasn’t been changed since the antiquity.

A quarry that operated for a few years on the outskirts of the area has now ceased operations. A few arbitrary buildings have been built among the vines. From the height of the ancient Ramnous, a magnificent view of the Euboean Gulf. A path descends from the ancient Ramnous towards the sea. In the valley of Limikos at the northeastern end of Attica, next to the Euboean Gulf, the ruins of the ancient municipality of Ramnous, which belonged to the tribe Aeantis and consisted of several settlements, are preserved.

In this area is the famous sanctuary of Nemesis, which is the most important sanctuary of the deity in the Greek area. The goddess closely resembles Artemis and may have represented a local form of her. To make her his, Zeus transformed into a swan while she had taken the form of a goose. After their union Nemesis gave birth to an egg which was given to Leda who hatched from it Helen of Troy and the Dioscuri. The sanctuary in honor of Nemesis must have been founded at the beginning of the 6th century B.C. Its heyday is placed in the 4th and 5th century B.C.

The area of Ramnous has been continuously inhabited since the Neolithic period. Ramnous is mentioned by the geographer Skylakas as an important fortress. His shrine had acquired great fame. The archaic temple of Nemeses was destroyed by the Persians during the invasion of 480/479 B.C. like so many other buildings of Attica. The statue of the deity was crafted by Phidias. The Persians had brought the marble and intended it to make a trophy after the capture of Athens. Of course, the Persians never occupied Athens. The shrine of Nemesis in Ramnous had incited the Athenian army to fight at Marathon. The fortress of Ramnous, like that of Sounio on the southern coast of Attica, is believed to have been built during the Peloponnesian War to control ships carrying grain to Athens. In 322 B.C. the admiral of the Macedonian army Cleitus landed an army at Ramnous. From there he was driven out by Phokion who captured the fortress. In 296 B.C. the fortress was captured by Demetrius the besieger.

During the Hellenistic times, decline begins. Pliny mentions that he visited the Municipality of Ramnous in the middle of the 1st century. A.D. Herodes Atticus was also interested in the temple of Ramnous, who probably financed its repair. The place is gradually abandoned, but until the 4th c. A.D. the temples of Nemesis are still preserved. At the end of the 4th c. A.D. the destruction of the statue of the goddess by the Christians is placed. The first excavations in Ramnouda were carried out by Dilettanti in 1813 and by Dimitrios Philios in 1880. Between 1890 and 1892, excavations were carried out at the site by Valerios Stais, during which the sanctuary, the fortress and many burial enclosures came to light. In 1958 a short survey was carried out by Eythimios Mastrokostas. From 1975 until today, the archaeological site of Ramnous has been systematically excavated and studied with the funding of the Archaeological Society under Vasileios Petrakos’s dicrection.