THE NAXOS GUIDE TO THE VILLAGES AND "TOWNS" OF NAXOS

Table of distances  Festivals

Resort:  A village whose raison d'être is tourism and will usually be a ghost town out of season.  These are still lively, pleasant places and not at all like the worst of the Costas or places like Kavos, Faliraki or Benitses -  they are not full of English pubs, fish and chip shops, etc. and they lack yobs.  A Venetian castro, usually translated as 'castle', is in reality a fortified manor house.

CHORA (Hora, Naxos Town)

The main town, tourist centre and port.  Bustling and busy at all times of the year for Naxos is a "working" Island - that is, it has other sources of income than tourists so, unlike many islands, you will find Greeks as customers in bars and restaurants in equal numbers to visitors. 

The town has spread around the heights of the Castro, a Venetian castle.  The old town is a maze of twisting lanes and steep marble stairways full of geraniums, jasmine and morning glory.  If you always head higher, eventually you will find yourself in the Castro proper, probably by way of an impressive, very ancient, wooden door.  Pass through, leaving the Castro at midnight, when the moon is full and you can make a vow which you will keep and so change your life.  Looking out from this door you can see, through dazzling, white walls and bougainvillea,  a slice of sea and, on a clear day, Mykonos.  Wander, without direction, through this pleasant confusion of streets and alleyways and arches until you reach the central square.  Here you will find the Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Naxos museum.  

Descending from the Castro, heading West, and you will eventually come down to the Greek Orthodox Cathedral and a covered archaeological site.  The rough beach of Grotta is just behind the houses, only really for watching the sea when it is angry.  Walk round and you can cross the causeway to the islet of Palatia with its monumental gateway, the Portara.  Unfortunately, you will rarely find the opportunity to be alone here and thus  be able to relax and feel the atmosphere of the place.  Sometimes, late at night you might be the only ones there.

Patron Saint Nikodemos 14 July

Bars  Restaurants  Hotels

ANGIDIA

Just outside Chora.  Remains of an ancient viaduct and the ruins of a monastery with a carving of the Lion of Saint Mark (Venetian).

PROCOPIOS (Prokopios, various tries by people on their first visit)

Resort.  This pleasant, little village bordering the magnificent beach gets bigger and busier every year - a whole complex of hotels and rooms has grown up on the landward size.  We have heard - and never want to test the veracity - that Procopios is, in August, one huge traffic jam leading to an overflowing car park.  There are many pleasant places here, traditional tavernas, fast food places, cafés and bars.  A few of our particular favourites are:  Il Gusto with its little courtyard garden, particularly for breakfast; Fotis Taverna, as Greek as you could wish, Annas Bar, The Golden Beach for pastries, To Steki for snack food, at the end of the bay, on the hill, for its view, Avali and, on the bend just before you get into the village, Perama.  Because these are favourites, it does not mean there is anything wrong with any of the other places - in fact there is only one place we would not go back to.

The places we stay are The Proteas and a private house which is for rent, both excellent, but there are many fine looking places everywhere, you're spoiled for choice.  Try, for instance, Kavos or Lianos.

Bars  Restaurants  Hotels  Sketch of Procopios and its businesses.

Saints day:  8 July

AGIA ANNA  (Aghia Anna, Aganna)

Resort.  This, like Procopios, is growing rapidly and is now the second main resort on the island after the Chora and St Georges, rivaling Apollonas.  It is the first choice for families, having a gently sloping, sandy beach and shallow sea.  The beach is lined with tavernas and bars with several hotels lining the road.

Saints day:  25 July

Bars  Restaurants  Hotels

CHALKI (Halki, Chalky)

Surrounded by olive groves, the wealth of the village.  Nowadays it is a lively place during the day mainly because it is the site of the island's high school and also because it is a commercial and cultural centre.  You can find various churches and Venetian castles (pyrgos) here, for instance, Pirgos Francopolous (17th Century).  Castle, though the usual translation, is a misnomer - they are more like small, fortified manor houses.  Also some Mycean tombs in Apano Castro and take a quick look at the outdoor laundry.

Bars  Restaurants  Hotels

FILOTI (Philoti)

The biggest village in Naxos (3,000 inhabitants) and worth visiting for four, main things.  The leafy square shaded with a plane tree, to see the outside of a restored Venetian castle (De Lastic), to visit the church of the Assumption with its iconostasis of marble and, of course, for the views.  The surrounds are pastures and olive woods with Venetian and Byzantine churches.  A road leads to the Aria Springs and thence to the cave of Zas.  Follow this road (pretty dangerous) to the Tower of Chimaros.  On the 15th of August, Filoti is host to Naxos' biggest festival, the name day of Panagia.  If you're around, you should witness folk music and dancing and be able to taste local wine and produce.  The population of Filoti make the trek (much easier nowadays - a metalled road has been cut up to it) to the church of St John the Baptist - seen high on the mountainside on the right as you pass through Filoti.

Saints day:  St John the Baptist 14-16 August

Bars  Restaurants  Hotels

DAMARIONAS

Just before you reach Filoti, a lane to the right.  An excellent potter's workshop is here, well worth a visit.  Some original dishes, casseroles,etc at a good price.  NB:  Please don't misread this and go looking for food.

Saints day:  6 August

MELANES

Very steep and narrow roads, quite worrying in a car.  Across the valley at Flerio can be found a smaller but finer Kouros (7th Century) than the one at Apollonas.  Pleasant walking.  Thought to be one of the first ever statues to be seen in movement, one leg being outstretched as though walking.

Saints day:  The Twelve Apostles 29-30 June

SANGRI (Sagri, Apo Sagri)

A conglomeration of three hamlets downhill from the road.  Farming country, windmills, olive trees, vines but now with a wooded park area.  The picturesque streets are paved with flagstones .  Someone who did guided tours to the island and whose knowledge was second to none said the name of the village is derived from French and means the "True Cross", so, probably, originally,  Saint Croix.  Research however, indicates this is incorrect and the name actually comes from 'Saint Graal' or 'Sang Raal' - the first being 'The Holy Grail', the second, 'Royal Blood'.  In 1307, after the arrest in France on Friday 13th October of all the Knights Templar by Philip the Fair, some knights, fleeing from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, landed on Naxos.  They were on their way to claim sanctuary from the excommunicated King of Scotland, Robert the Bruce but, legend says, they did not continue their journey for 132 years forming , instead, a hidden community at Sangri.  it is said they traveled with ' a great treasure'.  Whether this treasure went with them when they finally departed, nobody knows.  We have to wait until 1991 for Sangri's next famous visitor. (To be continued).

Its Saint's day  is July 1st, Saint Anargyron.  Its parish church is the rebuilt monastery of Saint Michael.  Various disused churches and monasteries together with older archaeological sites, particularly the Temple of Demeter, abound in this area.  There are country walks down to the beaches of Mikri Vigla, Glyfada, Kastraki and Agia Anna.  The Timos Stavros Monastery (feast day, 14th September) was used as a secret school for Greek children during the Turkish occupation.

Bars  Restaurants

TRIPODES (VIVLOS)

You will find it on maps and some road signs under either name.  Something to do with Tripodes being the capital of the former municipality of Vivlos.  No, I don't understand it either.  Many fine buildings, flagstoned streets and a square with tavernas and cafés which, unfortunately, we've never seen open although on a couple of occasions, making a special journey out there.  Perhaps if we went on its saints day - 14th of September - we'd find it buzzing but, then, we wouldn't go near Greece in August.  Several churches and ruins can be found thereabouts.  It might be worth looking for the broken down tower of Paleopyrgos dating from the Pelasgian era.  For a stroll to this village - click.

Saints day:  Saint Paraskevi 14 September (some dispute, also given as 23rd August)

Bars  Restaurants 

APERANTHOS (Apiranthos, Apeiranthou, etc.)

When first we visited this village it was easy to see that the inhabitants were different to the rest of the Naxiots due to it being (possibly apocryphally) an ancient Cretan colony.  Whatever the truth, very few people now wear national dress and other physiognomic details have been eroded over time.  A lovely place where the air can be so pure and cool after the coastal areas, it is positively heady.  Marbled streets - so tread carefully should it be wet.  Twisty streets and stairways, a Venetian castro, a 13th Century church (Our Lady Aperathitissa), with a marble altar and a campanile, and excellent restaurants.  There are, also, three museums, archaeological - with Cycladic artifacts (3000-1200 BC), geology and a folk museum.  The archaeological museum contains plaques with early Greek writing, carved rocks, statuettes, oil lamps, arrow heads, pottery, etc.  The folk museum is a typical Aperanthos house with all the bits and pieces of a peasant life style.  The old ladies will try to sell you textiles.  The geological museum is, perhaps, the most interesting with not only semi-precious and precious minerals including the wealth of Aperanthos - emery - but also some fossils including the head of a dwarf elephant that, it is said, once roamed these hills.  Located just passed where the bus stops, on the left.  One of the first mentions of the village was by a 15th Century traveller, hight Buondelmonti but archaelogical evidence points to there having been a settlement here for 5000 years.

 Next to Lefteris (see restaurants) is a rather good sculptor, Glezos.  He does the usual tourist bits but also some interesting, original figures.

Bars  Restaurants 

APOLLONAS

Resort.  A largish village in a beautiful bay.  A must visit place if only to see the Kouros (about 2600 years old) in the lush hills above.  If possible, walk down from the Kouros to the village through the back lanes.  Have a splash in the sea, lie on a sandy beach, eat in one of the several tavernas (we have no particular favourite), shop (there's at least one very good tourist shop here, usually has different things and cheaper than in town) and, if you feel like it, find a room to stay on overnight.  There is the remains of a castro (Kalogeros) in the village.

Saints day:  19 August

Bars  Restaurants  Hotels

POTAMES (Potamia)

As its name suggests, this village is set near a river.  It is made up of three hamlets, Ano (lower), Mesi (middle) and Kato (upper) Potamia.  Lovely surroundings, ideal for an afternoon stroll.  Best to make friends with someone who lives on the island and will show you the best places to go.  Various churches and Pyrgi.

Saints day:  7 July

Bars  Restaurants 

ENGARES (Eggares)

What can be said about Potamia can also be said about Engares except the latter has a pool abounding in terrapin - which make a most peculiar noise, almost like birdsong.  Well worth trying to find.  The valley is very pleasant walking amongst olives and fruit trees and springs.

Saints day: 15 August

Restaurants

DANAKOS

A very different sort of village, leafy, shaded, cool, built around a stream - used until recently, to power waterwheels - and plane trees.  A perfect example of the "hidden villages" - those using their obscure location as a defence against pirates.  A couple of tavernas but we have only ever found one open but we only visit during the day and off season.  Still, the one will rustle up reasonable food and homemade wine good enough to take away.  Above can be found the monastery of Photodaris.  A feud developed several years ago between the villagers of Danakos and those of Filoti when the former refused to continue supplying water the latter.  Fights, killing of each others' livestock led, eventually, to the relocation - and reinforcement - of the main police station from Halki to Filoti.

Restaurants

GLINADO

Here be windmills.  Actually, quite a big village with several kafeneons/tavernas and a couple of shops.  For a stroll to this village click. 

ARSENIOS

A sleepy, little village possibly because the main road skirts rather than bisects it.  A couple of shops, kafeneons/tavernas and churches.  As a metalled road now reaches it from Aghia Anna it is getting more visitors.  Worth a stroll through - click.