Understand
Paros is a Greek island in the Cyclades group, neighbouring Naxos and is one of the most popular holiday destinations for visitors to the Greek islands.
Paros is the second largest island of the Cyclades. It has an area of 186 square kilometres and a coastline 120 kilometres long.
The island has the advantage of being located centrally in the Cyclades near Naxos, Ios, Sifnos and Syros. Most of the ferries to Naxos and Santorini make a stop first at Paros.
The island is the third in popularity of the group. First are Santorini and Mykonos.
Paros is considered as one of the most beautiful islands of the Cyclades. It is characterized by the many beaches and also the charming villages: Parikia (the main town), Naoussa, Lefkes, Marpissa and other. Naoussa is a old fishing village turned into a cosmopolitan top holiday destination. The village is characterized by its Venetian port and its many fish restaurants. The architecture of the area is also incredible.
Paros is also know for its excellent wind conditions for the practice of windsurfing and kite surfing.
Talk
In Paros most of the population can speak English except the older generation. In many bars, pubs, restaurants and shops there is somebody who speaks English, Italian, or German.
Get in
By sea
Ferries and Highspeed catamaran services run daily from Piraeus.
The ferry landing is haunted by dozens of room-hawkers, and is manic. If you arrive during a high wind and/or at night, it can all be a bit overwhelming. Know where you're going, and book ahead.
Visit Greek Travel Pages or Paros Directory and search through all ferry schedules to/from Paros and the rest of the Greek islands.
By air
Olympic Airways operate a daily service from Athens.
Get around
Within the resorts walking is the best method of transport. Bus services operate between the towns, but for total freedom hire a car. Car hire is readily available in all towns and is reletively cheap.
If you need to cash a traveller's cheque in Paros, bear in mind that most of the banks on the island charge a commission for doing so (even the National Bank of Greece), which is not the case everywhere in the country. Expect to have about 8% in commissions deducted from your funds. Better yet, cash your cheques for free in Athens first.
See
Don't miss the church of Panagia Ekatantapilianiin Parikia (very close to the harbour)a 17century monument.
The old town of Parikia is considered to be the biggest in the cyclades island.You will find alleys untouched from the touristic wave that reduces the beauty of these settlements.
Lefkes village is in the middle of the island with many nice tavernas,and beautifull alleys.
Do
A fantastic place to take the kids is Aqua Park. Boats leave hourly from Naoussa and takes approximately 15 minutes.
Visit as many beaches as you can, don't stay in one every day.Every beach has a different feeling.Try Farangas,Parasporos,Krios,Kato yalos,Agia Irini,Logaras'' is very nice for families.
Eat
In Parikia's sea front you will find many nice tavernas with excellent food,exacly behind in the old town wander along the narrow streets with the many kind of shops,and the unique cycladic atmospfere.
Drink
The Jazz Bar on Market St in Parikia serves a great Martini!
A popular place to watch the famous sunsets is the windmill bar by Pandrossas Hotel.
One favourite bar to watch the world go by is Pebbles jazz bar on the south harbour promenade.
Resalto bar A very nice bar in the port of Drios ,plays the best rock music in Paros.
Sleep
Rafaella Studios - Clean simple apartments close to beachs are Parikia but still quite. Very nice owners
Anna Platanou is a friendly family run accommodation offering Rooms,Hotel,Apartments in parikia close to the beach with sea view.Very nice and helpful owners.
Alpha Studios - traditional cycladic studios located in the picturesque village of Naoussa in Paros island
Ragoussis House - traditional cycladic rooms, studios and apartments located on a small hill between the Logaras beach and Pounda Beash near the small fishing-village of Piso Livadi. The Athens-based owners are very helpful, and are doing guest-pickups both at the port and the airport.
Get out
The main night life destination is the quaint town of Parikia where you can enjoy a meal by the sea.
Paros (Greek: νήσος Πάρος; Venetian: isola di Paro) is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, with which it is separated by a channel about 8 km (5 mi) wide. It lies approximately 100 nautical miles (185km) south-east of Piraeus. Today Paros is one of the most popular European tourist hotpots.
Geography and Sights
Paros' geographic co-ordinates are 37° N. lat, and 25° 10' E. long. The area is 165 km². Its greatest length from N.E. to S.W. is 13 miles (20.8 km)., and its greatest breadth 10 miles (16 km). The island is of a round, plump-pear shape. It is formed of a single mountain about 800 m (2500 ft) high, sloping evenly down on all sides to a maritime plain, which is broadest on the north-east and south-west sides. The island is composed of marble, though gneiss and mica-schist are to be found in a few places.
To the west of Paros lies its smaller sister island Antiparos. At its narrowest, the channel between the two islands is less than 2km wide. A car-carrying shuttle-ferry operates all day (to and from Pounda, 3 miles south of Parikia). In addition a dozen smaller islets surround Paros.
The island is famed for its beaches. The largest is Chrissí Aktí (Golden Beach, Greece) near Drios on the east coast, facing Naxos. The constant strong wind in the strait between Paros and Naxos makes it a favoured windsurfing location. Other fine sand beaches are to be found (anti-clockwise from Golden Beach) at Pounda, Logaras, Piso Livadi, Naoussa bay, Parikía and Agía Irini.
The capital, Parikía (Italian, Parechia) (Fig.2), situated on a bay on the north-west side of the island, occupies the site of the ancient capital Paros.
Parikía harbour ia a major hub for Aegean islands ferries and catamarans, with several sailings each day for Piraeus (the port of Athens), Heraklion (the capital of Crete) and other islands such as Naxos, Ios, Santorini, and Mykonos (Fig.4). The harbour approaches are notoriously hazardous due to the presence of a group of isolated rocks. The most recent and deadly shipwreck off Paros was that of the car ferry MV Express Samina. It ran onto the rocks and sank in a storm on the night of 26 Sept 2000. This resulted in the drowning of 80 passengers.
In Parikía town, houses are built and decorated in the traditional Cycladic style with flat roofs, whitewash walls and blue-painted doors and window frames and shutters (Fig.1). Shadowed by luxuriant vines, and surrounded by gardens of oranges and pomegranates, the houses give the town a picturesque and pleasing aspect. On a rock beside the sea are the remains of a medieval castle, built almost entirely of the marble remains of an ancient temple. Similar traces of antiquity, in the shape of bas-reliefs, inscriptions, columns, & etc., are numerous. On a rock shelf to the south are remains of a precinct which was dedicated to Asclepius. In addition, close to the modern harbour, the remains of an ancient cemetery are visible, since being discovered recently during non-archaeological excavations.
In Parikía's main square is the town's principal church, the Ekatontapiliani (literally: "church of the hundred doors"). Its oldest features almost certainly predate the adoption of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire (391 A.D.). It is said to have been founded by the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I the Great (ruled 306 - 337 A.D.), Saint Helen, during her pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There are two adjoining chapels, one of very early form, and also a baptistery with a cruciform font.
On the north side of the island is the bay of Naoussa (Naussa) or Agoussa (Fig.2), forming a safe and spacious harbour. In ancient times it was closed by a chain or boom. Another good harbour is that of Drios on the south-east side, where the Turkish fleet used to anchor on its annual voyage through the Aegean during the period of Ottoman rule over Paros (1537 - 1832).
The three villages of Dragoulas, Mármara and Tsipidos situated on an open plain on the eastern side of the island, and rich in remains of antiquity, probably occupy the site of an ancient town. They are known together as the "villages of Kephalos" after the steep and lofty hill of Kephalos. On this hilltop stands the abandoned monastery of Agios Antonios (St Anthony). Around it are the ruins of a medieval castle which belonged in the late Middle Ages to the Venetian noble family of the Venieri. They gallantly but vainly defended it against the Turkish admiral Barbarossa in 1537.
Parian marble, which is white and translucent (semi-transparent), with a coarse grain and a very beautiful texture, was the chief source of wealth for the island. The celebrated marble quarries lie on the northern side of the mountain anciently known as Marpessa (afterwards Capresso), a little below a former convent of St Mina. The marble, which was exported from the 6th century BC onwards, was used by Praxiteles and other great Greek sculptors (Fig.3). It was obtained by means of subterranean quarries driven horizontally or at a descending angle into the rock. The marble thus quarried by lamplight was given the name of Lychnites, Lychneus (from lychnos, a lamp), or Lygdos . Several of these tunnels are still to be seen. At the entrance to one of them is a bas-relief dedicated to Pan and the Nymphs. Several attempts to work the marble have been made in modern times, but it has not been exported in any great quantities.
Parikía town has a small but interesting archaeological museum housing some of the many finds from sites in Paros. The best pieces, however, are in the Athens National Archaeological Museum. The Paros museum contains a fragment of the Parian Chronicle, a remarkable chronology of ancient Greece. Inscribed in marble, its entries give time elapsed between key events from the most distant past (1500 B.C.) down to 264 B.C.
History
The story that Paros was colonized by one Paros of Parrhasia, who brought with him a colony of Arcadians to the island is one of those etymological fictions which abound in Greek legend. Ancient names of the island are said to have been Plateia (or Pactia), Demetrias, Strongyli (meaning round due to the round shape of the island), Hyria, Hyleessa, Minoa and Cabarnis .
From Athens the island later received a colony of Ionians under whom it attained a high degree of prosperity. It sent out colonies to Thasos and Parium on the Hellespont. In the former colony, which was planted in the 15th or 18th Olympiad, the poet Archilochus, native of Paros, is said to have taken part. As late as 385 BC the Parians, in conjunction with Dionysius of Syracuse, founded a colony on the Illyrian island of Pharos (Hvar).
Shortly before the Persian War Paros seems to have been a dependency of Naxos . In the first Greco-Persian War (490 B.C.), Paros sided with the Persians and sent a trireme to Marathon to support them. In retaliation, the capital Paros was besieged by an Athenian fleet under Miltiades, who demanded a fine of 100 talents talent (weight). But the town offered a vigorous resistance, and the Athenians were obliged to sail away after a siege of 26 days, during which they had laid the island waste. It was at a temple of Demeter Thesmophoros in Paros that Miltiades received the wound of which he afterwards died . By means of an inscription Ross was enabled to identify the site of the temple; it lies, as Herodotus suggests, on a low hill beyond the boundaries of the town.
Paros also sided with shahanshah Xerxes I of Persia against Greece in the second Greco-Persian War (480 - 479 B.C.), but after the battle of Artemisium the Parian contingent remained inactive at Kythnos watching the progress of events For their support of the Persians, the islanders were later punished by the Athenian war leader Themistocles, who exacted a heavy fine .
Under the Delian League, the Athenian-dominated naval confederacy (477 - 404 B.C.), Paros paid the highest tribute of all the island members: 30 talents annually, according to the estimate of Olympiodorus (429 B.C.) . This implies that Paros was then one of the wealthiest islands in the Aegean. Little is known of the constitution of Paros, but inscriptions seem to show that it was modeled on Athenian democracy, with a senate- Boule (ancient Greece)- at the head of affairs . In 410 BC the Athenian general Theramenes found an oligarchy governing Paros; he deposed it and restored the democracy . Paros was included in the second Athenian confederacy (the Second Athenian Empire 378 - 355 B.C.). In c.357 B.C., along with Chios, it severed its connection with Athens.
From the inscription of Adule we learn that the Cyclades, presumably including Paros, were subject to the Ptolemies, the Hellenistic dynasty that ruled Egypt (305 - 30 B.C.). Paros then became part of the Roman Empire and later of its Greek-speaking successor state, the Byzantine Empire.
In 1204, the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade seized Constantinople and overthrew the Byzantine Empire. Although a residual Byzantine state known as the Empire of Nicaea survived the Crusader onslaught and eventually recovered Constantinople (1261), many of the original Byzantine territories, including Paros, were lost permanently to the crusading powers. Paros became subject to the Duchy of the Archipelago, a fiefdom made up of various Aegean islands ruled by a Venetian duke as nominal vassal of a succession of crusader states. In practice, however, the duchy was always a client state of the Republic of Venice.
In 1537 Paros was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and remained under the Ottoman Empire until the Greek War of Independence (1821 - 29). Under the Treaty of Constantinople (1832), Paros became part of the newly independent Kingdom of Greece, the first time the Parians were ruled by fellow Greeks for over six centuries. At this time, Paros became the home of a heroine of the nationalist movement, Manto Mavrogenous, who had both financed and fought in the war for independence. Her house, near Ekatontapiliani church, is today a historical monument.
Islands of Paros
Other
Paros has schools, a few lyceums (secondary schools), a church, a post office and a few squares (plateies). It also has a large number of hotels and bars. In the summer months it is heavily frequented by tourists, especially young backpackers on island-hopping tours of Greece.
See also
References
External links
