Mytilene is the capital of Lesvos. The town of Mytilini was first founded on the small island where the Enetic castle was later constructed.
Herodotus dates the foundation of the town, in his work » Homer’s Life», 130 years after the conquest of Troy, that is to say around 1053 a. C., if the conquest of Troy took place in 1183, as historians say. Mytilene reached her highest development around the 7th-6th century with the philosopher Pittakos and the poets Alkeos and Sapho.
Mytilene got her name from one of Makara’s” daughters, the island” s first colonists.
Impressive buildings of a neo-classic architecture, historical monuments, unique archaeological treasures, like the mosaic-works found at Menandros” s House (exhibited now at the Archaeological Museum) and the natural hot springs compose a rich cultural context.
Along the coast that starts from the Custom House (Teloneio), the visitor has the possibility to enjoy an interesting stroll, during which he will have the chance to admire the mansion, where the old Archaeological Museum is established, the beach that belongs to the Greek Touristic Organism (EOT), the small and clean beach, called » t” apeili», and above that, on a small hill among the pine trees, the bust of Sapho, the poetess, worked out artistically and given to the Municipality of Mytilini by the American artist Erietta Fors.