The semi-mountainous village of Chrysafa is built at an altitude of 550 metres and is located 15 kilometres east of Sparta. It is a beautiful village with stone-built mansions, typical examples of traditional architecture.
The broader area of Chrysafa has been inhabited for thousands of years since the Neolithic era. The English School of Archaeology, which conducted research around the village in the 1980s, provides us with a long list of sites where traces of sacred, small settlements and other ancient sites have been found. An impressive finding is the one that is on display today in the collection of the old Archaeological Museum of Berlin. It is a relief found in the area of Pykromygdalia, in Chrysafa. It is carved on grey-blue stone and depicts two deities and two faithful people standing in front of them.
The settlement was built in the 12th or 13th century and flourished in the 17th century, thanks to the development of the silk trade. The inhabitants of Chrysafa actively participated in the Orlov Revolt of 1770. As a result, the Ottoman troops set the settlement on fire, and a large part of the population took refuge in Hydra. Most of the families returned to the area in 1830. The fighter of the Greek Revolution, Theodosios Apostolis and the clergyman and member of Filiki Etairia, Ignatius of Hungary - Vlahia, came from Chrysafa. To understand the importance of the village of Chrysafa ("Glorious Country", as mentioned in older documents), it should be noted that the first official map of Greece in the region of Laconia shows only Mystras and Chrysafa.
