Poseidonia, also called Delagrazia, is the aristocratic villa village on the southwest coast of Syros, roughly 12 kilometres from the port capital Ermoupoli. Wealthy Ermoupoli merchants built eclectic and neoclassical mansions here in the late nineteenth century, giving the village a character unlike any other Cycladic settlement. The village faces a sandy beach backed by … Read more
The Apollon Theatre is the municipal opera house of Ermoupoli, the capital of Syros, and the oldest surviving theatre of its kind in Greece. Merchant wealth built it in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the port ran as the busiest trading harbour in the young Greek state. The Italian-trained architect Pietro Sampo modelled … Read more
Vari beach is the sheltered family bay on the south coast of Syros, a narrow, deeply cut inlet of shallow, warm water backed by a resort settlement of hotels and tavernas. The calm sea and gentle sandy floor make it the safest choice on the island for families with young children. The bay sits roughly … Read more
Syros loukoumi is the island’s signature confection, a soft, sugar-dusted sweet that made Ermoupoli famous across Greece from the 19th century onward. The gel of sugar and starch, scented with rose or mastic, travels home in ribboned boxes as the classic souvenir of the island. The sweet arrived with refugees from Chios and the wider … Read more
Kini beach is the west-facing bay of a small fishing village on the western coast of Syros, backed by a curved seafront of fish tavernas and a bronze mermaid statue set on a rock. Two adjoining sandy beaches, Kini and Delfini, and an open horizon toward the setting sun draw families and evening diners through … Read more
Galissas beach is the main sandy bay on the west coast of Syros, a sheltered crescent of pale sand fringed by tamarisk trees and backed by a small village of tavernas and rooms. The shallow, calm water and easy bus link from Ermoupoli make it the island’s most family-friendly stretch of coast. The bay sits … Read more
Ano Syros is the medieval Catholic town that crowns the ridge above Ermoupoli on the island of Syros. Venetian settlers founded it in the thirteenth century on the hill of San Giorgio, ringing the summit with houses built for defence against pirates. The settlement kept a Roman Catholic majority through the Ottoman centuries, protected by … Read more
Ermoupoli is the capital of Syros and the neoclassical showpiece of the Cyclades, built by refugees in the 1820s who turned a bare harbour into the leading commercial port of nineteenth-century Greece. Marble squares, an opera house modelled on La Scala, and mansions raised by sea-captains give the town a scale found in no other … Read more