Agia Marina was a small coastal settlement on the east coast of Leros, which was gradually expanded and is currently joined up with Platanos that constitutes the administrative capital of the island. It is a united total of settlements having a particular cohesion. Its houses begin from the seaside and continue amphitheatrically uphill to the slope of the hill Merovigli. At the entrance of its port, there are the remarkable ruins of the medieval fortress Bourtzi, the picturesque lighthouse at its one edge, the big pier with the boatyard and the windmill –the island’s trademark- that looks like it is floating on the sea surface. Near the port, there is the metropolitan church of Agia Marina, which was built in 1933 having a cruciform inscribed type. It is worth wandering around the narrow, built-up backstreets of the settlement, where you can see neat yards. In addition, here is the heart of the commercial traffic and nightlife.
Platanos also stretches amphitheatrically through the nearby hill Apitiki, whose steep summit is triply crowned by the castle of Panagia. The name of the settlement comes from a perennial plant that offered its dense shadow to the square Roussos. Now, it is replaced by a quite younger offshoot. The city hall is also located here and it is consisted of two neoclassical buildings. The churches of Timios Stavros, Sotiras Christos and Agia Paraskevi are the most important. As far as the architecture of the settlement is concerned, the coexistence of houses built according to the traditional island style and neoclassical mansions with wooden or marble balconies and tile roofs, which were built from the end of the 19th century until the Interwar period by rich repatriated residents of Leros, is undoubtedly remarkable. To the south of Platanos, in the heart of the roadstead Pandeli, there is the homonymous settlement, which has been integrated in the united number of settlements of the island’s capital. The asphalt road that leads to Kastro passes by this point, after having passed by the windmills.
