3 Unique Aegean Villages Worth Visiting

Klima, Milos: The Village with the Colourful “Syrmata”

Within the early nineteenth century, a farmer in Klima, Milos, unearthed a feminine statue that grew to become well-known because the Venus de Milo. Nonetheless, pictures of this fishing village at the moment are making the rounds on Instagram for various causes. Klima, a small seaside settlement with solely a handful of residents, is famend for its stunning cave-like “syrmata” homes. These distinctive Cycladic buildings, carved into the rock and in addition discovered elsewhere on the island, have been initially constructed as storehouses for the fishermen’s boats in the course of the winter. They take their identify from the ropes (syrmata) they might use to haul them inside and shield them from storms.

In Klima, the syrmata have two ranges. The bottom ground was used to retailer boats, whereas the primary ground housed the fishermen’s households. In the present day, nonetheless, many of those white buildings function as lodgings. Klima, a beautiful village about 5 kilometers from Adamas and three kilometers from Plaka, can be famed for its breathtaking sunsets and now attracts guests from everywhere in the world. Many individuals come not solely to wander and take pictures in entrance of the syrmata with their massive wood doorways and brightly coloured balconies but in addition to spend their trip there.

In the event you go to Milos this yr, search for the few remaining fishermen on this picture-perfect village and go to the cave chapel of Agia Paraskevi on the outskirts of city. Between Klima and Tripiti, you’ll discover the Historical Theatre of Milos and the famed Catacombs, an historic underground communal cemetery that’s considered one of many world’s most necessary early Christian monuments.

Volax, Tinos: Out of this world

Volax has just lately change into related with poetry, because it welcomes visitors with verses by Greek poets on its doorways, home windows, and partitions. This yr, it’ll host the tenth Tinos Worldwide Literary Pageant from July 24 to 27. Nonetheless, the explanation why this Cycladic village is exclusive all through the world may be very totally different.

Whether or not they’re the stays of battles between Titans and Giants, as native legend has it, or of a meteorite fall or volcanic eruption tens of millions of years in the past, as some theories counsel, the large granite boulders surrounding the village create an otherworldly panorama. These “volaki,” from which the village derives its identify, have elevated the plateau round Volax to worldwide prominence as a bouldering vacation spot. Rock climbers from everywhere in the world come to the island to climb the wonderful, nearly spherical rocks that resemble man-made sculptures.

Other than the distinctive monoliths that proceed to fascinate geologists, this basket-weaving village within the coronary heart of Tinos is among the island’s oldest and homes a small however well-curated folklore museum with fascinating displays from the area’s agricultural and ecclesiastical life within the nineteenth century. Volax additionally serves as the start line for quite a few stunning climbing paths, together with the Water and Citadel Route, which passes via Agapi, Perastra, and Exomvourgo earlier than returning to Volax, and the round Geotrail, which passes via Falatados and Myrsini earlier than circling again to the village. In the event you go to Tinos in the course of the summer season, you’re more likely to catch an occasion on the village’s outside stone theater, and when you occur to be there on September 9, when the parish celebrates the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, you’ll see Volax at its most interesting.

Pyrgi, Chios: The Open-Air Museum of “Xysta”

“We’re the Pyrgians, famend in Chios;

even in England, our fame reveals.

All of the lords who got here our manner

requested us for footage, day after day.”

Though the residents of Pyrgi could not respect this considerably satirical little ditty, it’s a testomony to their delight of their distinctive village, which continues to be a topic of examine to today. Pyrgians have been distinguished from different Chios residents a number of a long time in the past by their distinctive conventional costumes and dialect. Though they now not put on white garments and turbans, their robust Cypriot-like dialect nonetheless offers them away. Nonetheless, what makes Pyrgi of Chios actually stand out is the method used to brighten the outside of the buildings inside the village’s medieval fortifications. This attractive mastic village resembles an open-air museum due to its distinctive black-and-white geometric patterns made up of circles, lozenges, triangles, stars, and different shapes.

These designs, known as “xysta,” are shaped by layering white and grey plaster and resemble Renaissance Italian sgrafitti. They’re a singular artwork kind that impresses each Greek and worldwide guests. The village comes alive on August 15, when Pyrgians from throughout congregate within the sq. to have fun the competition of the Virgin Mary. Pyrgi’s festivals entice many guests who come to watch the locals dance the Pyrgian, a quick dance carried out by three dancers: two males and a girl within the center.

In the event you go to Chios this summer season, head to the southwest to admire the structure and ornament of those distinctive homes. In Pyrgi, you’ll additionally come throughout a number of historic church buildings, such because the Thirteenth-century Byzantine church of the Holy Apostles. The Chios Mastic Museum of the Piraeus Financial institution Group Cultural Basis is about 2.5 kilometers away, and two of the island’s most spectacular seashores are close by: Mavra Volia, with its black volcanic pebbles, and the gorgeous Vroulidia, a small sandy seaside subsequent to spectacular white cliffs with turquoise waters and a view of the Venetiko island.