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Modern Description: Four and a half kilometres south of Polichnítos is the attractive village of Vrísa. On the main square is a small Natural History Collection housed in a former school building, comprising an interesting display of fossilised plants, fish, and early vertebrates, both from Lesbos and from elsewhere, which explains the background to the remarkable early flora and fauna of the island at a time when it was still attached to Asia Minor. (Open summer daily 9.30–3, 4–7; winter Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon 8.30–1.) The finding of a large number of petrified mammal and reptile remains of gigantic dimensions in the low lying area between Vrísa and Vaterá, gave rise to the creation of this museum by the University of Athens.

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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