Sarpi was the original name of the village located in the heart of the island. Amphitheatrically constructed on the slope of a low hill about 800 metres from Moudros Bay, the village offers stunning views to its inhabitants. Thus it was renamed “Kallithea” (good view) in 1955, as the former name was deemed Turkish. Sharpin, on the other hand, is cited in a 1361 inventory document from the Great Lavra monastery. As a result, Sharpin cannot be Turkish. Its origins are ancient, and it is one of the few Mycenaean town names that have remained on Lemnos. In particular, the term “sa-pi-de: box” appears in Mycenaean inscriptions, from which the ancient words “sarpis (the)” and “sarpos (the): ark” derived, and thus: “wooden home.” The settlement was once located further east, in the harbour of “Agios Georgios,” but residents were forced to relocate due to pirate threats on the one hand and swampy land on the other.

The “Palaiological School of Sarpi” opened in the village in 1868, the island’s first peer run school outside of the capital. With the help of the devout locals, the church of Agios Georgios was built from the ground up in 1868. It is built in the form of a basilica, and the woodwork of the ladies area, as well as hagiographies by Pavlos Thomas (1870), Efstratios Imbrios, and Grigorios Papamalis (1918-23) are impressive.