Looking for that church....in "Mama Mia" movie

[by gabidunn]

Hey thanks a lot for anybody answering my question. I am looking for the name, location, and possible contact for the church that was in the recent movie "Mama Mia" starring Meryl Streep. I don't even know what island it is on-- Help! Thank you.

[by jillypops]

[quote="gabidunn"]Hey thanks a lot for anybody answering my question. I am looking for the name, location, and possible contact for the church that was in the recent movie "Mama Mia" starring Meryl Streep. I don't even know what island it is on-- Help! Thank you.[/quote]

It is on the Greek island of Skopelos in the Sporades, next door to Skiathos, we have just returned from a wonderful holiday on Skiathos and you can take a trip to the church, we didn't go ourselves but I understand it is quite different in real life to the movie - however if you want a wonderful holiday you can't go wrong. Skopelos likes to keep a low profile so you won't find it very touristy.

[by jessicajil]

The church is called Agios Iannis. It is very tiny, so that it barely shows up in ordinary photos. To make it show in the film they built a mock up of the front part of a church right over the top of the real one, and they built it back to front so that the apse would show. At the same time they re-roofed the monks part as it had a tin roof. Obviously the scenes inside were studio shots. I have photos of the mock-up if anyone is interested which I could post on here.

There is an ugly jetty at the bottom of the Agioa Iannis rock so they built false rocks over the top which nearly washed away in a gale. The funny thing was that they wanted men to arrange smaller rocks on the large concrete platform so that they would look natural .. so what did the men do? they they arranged them neatly in serried rows!

The scene of the dancing men with flippers was on a jetty built just for that purpose which as gone now, but the bay itself is very beautiful.

Some people have been going to Skopelos as a result of the Mama Mia film expecting the sort of night life etc that you would get in Spanish holiday resorts, and it's not like that at all .. it's a place with a gentle pace, a 'being' place not a 'doing' place to a large extent .. a place to experience its own culture not American/English culture imposed on it.

I love it as an island, and having friends there, return to it again and again out of season.