Nenita

The village of Nenita, 17 kilometers from the city of Chios and 2 kilometers from the coast of Aegean sea, used to be the biggest village of the Mastichora region.

With an altitude of 140 meters above the sea, Nenita towers over the surrounding area in the South of Chios. The village today calls around 1000 people its own, making it one of the biggest villages amongst Pirgi, Kalamoti, Olimbi and Mesta. With the fertile plateau, being close to Flatsia and Vouno in the West, Nenita used to be the home of 2500 inhabitants. A watch-tower of 25 meters height, temples, turrets and two monasteries inside the castle were what made Nenita a shining example of a flourishing marketplace in ancient times. The whole image was rounded by the numerous rich and beautiful chapels all around the fortification and the farms, which were built in the 16^th century and the origin of the name Nenita (gr. νεόκτιτα: newly built).

The big earthquake in 1881, however, destroyed much of the medieval architecture and took much of the villages former glory. Of the fanes only the churches dedicated to Agios Georgos, the Virgin Mary, Agios Isidoros, Agios Anargiros and ruins of the church of the Virgin below and several other were preserved. The most famous of the monasteries dedicated to the Archangels, and was erected in 1305.

The residents of Nenita are mostly working as farmers, producing olives, which they process further into olive oi, almonds, grapes and of course mastic. Their local dialect is called „Νενητούσοι“ (“Nenitusi”).