Kastaneri (former Barovitsa), an old mountain settlement on the slopes of Paiko, is mentioned in written sources from the end of the 15th century onwards. The church, dedicated to the therapeutic Agia Paraskevi, is a wide, three-aisled wooden-roofed basilica of the 19th century, with a belfry, which functions as a passage and dates – according to an inscription – in 1886. On the interior, there are surviving frescoes from the same era and remarkable relics, mostly portable, artistically sound icons by the painter Anastasios that date in 1837 and 1855.
Notable are also several later icons (from 1888, 1923, and 1924), crafted by the renowned painter from Petrovo, Dimitrios Evangelou, and his son Emmanuel, as well as by Emmanuel S. Genitsiotis. The colorful paneled ceiling and the wood-carved furnishing of the church are connected with the secular art of contemporary houses and reflect the prosperity and taste of the settlement’s inhabitants.
