The Capuchin Monastery of Saint John is a historic landmark in Ano Syros, a medieval Catholic town above Ermoupoli. Founded during Ottoman times, it plays a significant role in the island’s cultural and religious history. This monastery, nestled among the stepped alleys of Ano Syros, reflects the island’s Frankish-Venetian heritage and Catholic roots. It remains … Read more
The Syros Carnival, known in Greek as Apokries, is the pre-Lenten festival that fills the marble streets of Ermoupoli and the medieval hill of Ano Syros. It runs through the weeks before Lent and builds to the final Carnival weekend before Clean Monday. Costume parades, masquerade balls, satirical troupes, and children’s events spread across Miaouli … Read more
San Giorgio is the Roman Catholic cathedral that crowns the summit of Ano Syros, the medieval Catholic hilltop settlement on the island of Syros. Venetian settlers first raised a church on this peak in the medieval period, and the building rose and fell across the centuries into the cathedral seen today. Its whitewashed body sits … Read more
Markos Vamvakaris, widely called the patriarch of rebetiko, was born on the Catholic hilltop of Ano Syros in the early twentieth century. He grew up in the poor stepped lanes above the port, then left as a young man for the docks of Piraeus. There he mastered the bouzouki and shaped the urban folk music … 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
Syros, the elegant capital of the Cyclades, is a ferry from Piraeus near Athens, famous for the grand neoclassical port town of Ermoupoli. Plan the trip alongside skip-the-line sightseeing tickets and tours from My Greece Tours. Syros is a sophisticated island escape in the Athens travel guide. The sections below cover how to get there, … Read more