Saint Barbara Church
The church of Agia (Saint) Barbara of Erimos can be found at the village of Erimos. It belongs to the architectural type of the two - column cruciform inscribed church with an Athenian - type dome. H. Megaw dates the monument after 1150 (in the third quarter of the 12th century), while according to some scholars, St. Barbara of Erimos is considered to be "the most perfect church in Mani".
The columns of the temple are monolithic, octagonal with two – zone capitals and belong to the Post - Byzantine period, imitating early Christian capitals. The octagonal dome has white marble colonnades in the corners, while the windows are blocked with marble slabs. To the west of the church, above the narthex, an arched bell tower was built in a later period.
The entrance to the temple can be done through a door on the west. On the south side there was a second entrance with a sculpted marble drum, which was partially blocked at a later time and turned into a window. The church is whitewashed inside, but research has shown that there were frescoes. Also, inside the temple, the altar rests on an octagonal column, on the sides of which, later carvings represent human figures, letters, cross and geometric shapes of animals. At the Holy Step, the visitor can see two dedicatory inscriptions with the date 6808 from the creation of the World, which corresponds to the year 1299.
In 1992, the 5th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities of Sparta carried out restoration works of the church. As part of the waterproofing work of the foundations of the temple, an excavation was carried out around the walls where a pit tank came to light, at a distance of 80 cm from the south wall of the temple. An ossuary was also unearthed in the southeastern, outer corner of the church, which contained a 12th - century coin, as well as a ring from the Byzantine times.