The Katochori is the cultural seat of the municipality of Elloimeno -in honor- because it was the seat of the former municipality of Elloimeno between 1866-1912.
Nowadays it has 150 permanent residents compared to 1005 in 1907. The four old town hall buildings, the old prison, the old police stations, the 12 mills and the 10 churches remind us of its heyday.
Agios Charalambos in particular with the stone tableau dates back to the 15th century.ο century, while the iconostasis of Saint Demetrios carved in 1731 by Mastromanolis the Arcadian, as well as the despotic icons of the same period, which were carved by monks of the Mount Athos order, are also considered works of art.
In the areas of natural beauty there is also the plane tree of Agios Nikolaos with a circumference of 6.50 meters, the 150 meters deep cliff formed in 1918 in the position of Portee after a landslide of the mountain, the forest planted by the children of the primary school in 1953 and a number of remarkable stone buildings of the period 1880 - 1900 when the village experienced its greatest prosperity due to the vineyard and the export of wine to France.
The mansion of Conte Kavvadas from 1700, who was the first prefect of the island of Lefkada, is also preserved unchanged. The irons of the guillotine that were set up outside his house until 1880 are still there and await restoration.
LAYOUT
The inhabitants of the village have always been distinguished for their penchant for parties, entertainment, dancing and generally free life. There was no spiritual development and progress comparable to other villages on the island. Nowadays things are even more blurred because the composition of the population is changing and new concerns about the sustainability of the young people of the area are beginning to dominate.
NAME
Katochori in its current location began in 1601 when the first family settled. But there was an old village at the foot of the hill which was destroyed in the Middle Ages, probably by pirates. Because this old village was called Katochori, the new village was named with the same name, since the hill on which it was built was the area of the old village.
This old village is built on the ruins of the ancient city of «Ellomenos» hence the name of the municipality. This ancient city was destroyed by the Athenians when they campaigned in Syracuse because the Elloumenians were allies of the Corinthians who were colonizing Lefkada.
The bases of the tower of the ancient city of Ellomenos are preserved 7th century BC at the site of Xylogoidara. The Xylogoidara site in particular was a huge wooden stool in which the victim was put, whipped until wounds opened in his body, salt was poured and over the salt scalding water was poured until he was martyred or until he died.
THE DOWNHILL TODAY
Katochori today, after 400 years of being established in the area that the then Turkish conquerors essentially imposed on it, is looking at a blurred landscape and nothing else.
In the whole region that until 1912 belonged to Katochori, the following villages were created: Vlyho, Geni, Prolithia. Also settlements were created in Korakias, Desimi and Karavoliba.
All the new settlements have increasing trends while Katochori now looks like a dull landscape with a rich past, a poor present and an uncertain future.