Panayouda is a relatively small coastal village 6 km north of the city of Mytilini and has a population of about 705 inhabitants (2001) and the main occupation of the inhabitants is fishing.
There are attractions like I.N. of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, restored old olive mills and the cobbled coastal road along its small port.
At the northern limits of the settlement, there is the “Kalamiaris” settlement, from which Panagiotis Alepoudellis, father of the poet Odysseus Elytis, hails. In the same place, there is also the relatively unknown Finikodasos of Kalamiari or Panayouda.
The village owes its name to I.N tis Panagia which means “Little Virgin Mary” (local dialect: “Panagiouda”). This church was built in 1896 by the great Lesbian architect of the time: Argyris Adalis, with a Gothic dome like that of Agios Therapontos in Mytilini and of Taxiarches in Kayani.