Paros

Paros is the practical centre of the Cyclades, and the question every guest asks is the same: Parikia or Naoussa. The honest answer is Naoussa for the food and the harbour evenings, Parikia for the ferries, the church, and a quieter base. If you have four nights, split them.

The stone underfoot is the reason any of this exists. Parian marble, prized since antiquity for its translucence, was quarried in the hills above the village of Marathi and shipped across the ancient Mediterranean. The mines, now silent, can still be visited; the Hermes of Praxiteles in the Olympia museum was carved from this stone, as was much of the finest sculpture of the classical period.

In the heart of Parikia stands the Panagia Ekatontapiliani, the Church of One Hundred Doors, attributed to the mother of Constantine the Great and one of the few surviving fourth-century Byzantine churches in Greece. Local tradition holds that ninety-nine of its doors have been counted; the hundredth, it is said, will reveal itself only when Constantinople returns to Greek hands.

Naoussa has changed in the last decade. Where the harbour once held only fishermen mending nets, it now holds restaurants of genuine ambition alongside the old kafenia. The Venetian fortress ruins at the harbour entrance still get partly submerged at high tide, which we find charming. Inland, the marble-paved village of Lefkes is the place to escape the August coastal heat for a long lunch.

House Notes

  1. Arrival

    Paros has its own airport (PAS), with daily flights from Athens and seasonal European charters. Helicopter from Athens runs about 45 minutes. For the Antiparos day trip, a short car ferry crosses from Pounta on the island’s western tip, running through the day, or a hired boat makes the mile of the sound direct.

  2. The address

    Cosme, the 40-suite Luxury Collection resort on Naoussa Bay by Interior Design Laboratorium — the half-moon pool mirroring the bay, chef Yiannis Kioroglou's Parostia and Volta kitchens on the beach. Parīlio, the 46-suite house set inland in a tranquil valley on the northeastern coast, in colour-washed concrete and local marble.

  3. The kitchens

    Mario, now in Parikia after seventeen years on the Naoussa harbour, for the elevated kitchen Paros's restaurants are measured against. Siparos at Xifara, three kilometres east of Naoussa, for the tamarisk garden and the long sunset dinner. Sigi Ikhthyos on the Naoussa harbour square for the fish grilled in the evening by Giannis Zoumis himself.

  4. The marble quarries at Marathi

    Two underground galleries — the Quarry of the Nymphs and the Quarry of Pan — opened in the 7th century BC and worked into late antiquity. Lychnite, the snow-white statuary marble unique in its translucence, came from these galleries; the Hermes of Praxiteles, the Aphrodite of Milos, and the Victory of Samothrace were carved from it. Visits arranged through Friends of Paros.

  5. The Aegean Center for the Fine Arts

    A 1966 art school in a restored neoclassical building in the old town of Parikia — the only school of its kind in the Cyclades. Two semester-long programmes per year, max 24 students; summer 15-day workshops in painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, and classical singing.

  6. The beaches

    Kolymbithres, west of Naoussa, for the granite formations that form natural pools; Monastiri, in the same bay, calm and shallow; Santa Maria for the snorkelling on the eastern coast; Faragas, on the south coast in a sheltered bay, for the windy day. Water taxis from Naoussa’s old port reach Kolymbithres, Monastiri, and Laggeri.

  7. Antiparos, the day trip

    The 10-minute car ferry from Pounta to Antiparos runs through the day. The Antiparos cave on the centre hill descends nearly 100 metres into stalactite chambers, with Greek inscriptions on its walls from the 4th century BC. The Marquis de Nointel celebrated Christmas Mass inside it in 1673. A guided visit takes about an hour.

  8. Ekatontapyliani

    Behind the legend of the hundred doors stands the architecture: a three-aisled cruciform basilica raised over an ancient gymnasium, reworked under Justinian, with parts of the marble iconostasis and the pulpit preserved from the Early-Christian period. The Baptistery of the 4th century, beside the main church, is among the best-kept in the Orthodox East — a cruciform font cut whole into the marble. The Byzantine Museum in the complex holds the icons and woodcarvings.

  9. The Byzantine Road

    A thousand-year-old marble-paved track runs the hour from Lefkes, the mountain village that was the first capital of Paros, down to Prodromos through olive groves and vineyards thick with thyme and oregano. Stretches keep their original marble paving intact; others scatter it among the dirt. Prodromos closes its lanes to cars under a domed arch joining two small churches, and the four beaches of Molos, Kalogeros, Tsoukalia and Drios lie below.

  10. Moraitis at Naoussa

    The estate at Aghioi Anargyroi by the beach, founded by Manolis Moraitis in 1910, now in its third generation across 18,000 square metres of organic vineyard. The varieties are Cycladic-indigenous: Monemvasia, Mandilaria, Aidani Black, Vaftra, Karampraimi — with Paros named in research as the ark that preserved Monemvasia from Venetian rule onward.

Anchorage Notes

  1. Parikia

    Parikia is the central port and the island’s hub: the Municipal Port Fund of Paros and Antiparos services small and large speedboats, sailing and motor yachts, fishing boats and tenders at its marina, alongside the ferries. It is the busiest harbour in the Cyclades by daily arrivals — near thirty ferry calls a day in high summer — so a yacht lies here in company, or lies at Naoussa instead.

  2. Naoussa

    Naoussa, on the great bay to the northeast, the Port Fund calls one of the most picturesque small harbours in the whole Aegean, and it holds the largest fishing fleet in the Cyclades. It has grown into a summer town without ceasing to be the island’s working ψαροχώρι — its fishing village — so a yacht lies among caïques, and the catch comes ashore to the tavernas ringing the quay.

  3. Piso Livadi

    Piso Livadi, on the east coast, is a fishing refuge — αλιευτικό καταφύγιο in the Port Fund’s register — that has always taken larger yachts and impressive inflatables as well as its own boats. A seaside settlement rather than a resort, it keeps its tavernas along the water, and it is the harbour for a vessel that wants the quieter, unfashionable side of Paros.

  4. Pounta

    Pounta is the port on Paros’s western tip, the gateway to Antiparos across the strait the Port Fund names Amphigeo — one nautical mile, and a car ferry of about five minutes. It is a crossing point more than a harbour to lie in: the little ferries run constantly through the day, and a chartered tender can as easily make the sound under its own power.