Syros Loukoumi: The Island’s Signature Sweet and Its Ermoupoli Tradition

Syros Loukoumi: The Island's Signature Sweet and Its Ermoupoli Tradition

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. Plan the whole trip with Greece Tours. The sweet arrived … Read more

Galissas Beach on Syros: The Sheltered West-Coast Sandy Bay

Galissas Beach on Syros: The Sheltered West-Coast Sandy Bay

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. Plan the whole … Read more

Ano Syros: The Medieval Catholic Hilltop Town Above Ermoupoli

Ano Syros: The Medieval Catholic Hilltop Town Above Ermoupoli

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: The Neoclassical Capital of Syros and the Cyclades

Ermoupoli: The Neoclassical Capital of Syros and the Cyclades

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