At Naoussa, a Luxury Collection house laid out as a village of 40 suites

Beachfront at Naoussa, Paros, Cosme is a house of 40 suites that reads from the shore as a cluster of stone buildings rather than a single block. It opened in June 2022 under The Luxury Collection, and Empiria Group runs it.

Interior Design Laboratorium drew the architecture and the interiors, taking the island’s bright fishing villages as the reference and setting the plan as a continuation of the town beside it. The buildings are clean-lined and built in local stone, and the pathways wind between them, so the resort is crossed on foot the way a village is. The pool is cut to follow the curve of the bay the house sits in. Beyond the open-air entrance, the marble-floored reception carries a mural by Christina Mandilari of Naked Summers, with wallpapers and fabrics in handmade embroidery by Pierre Frey. Greek artists are shown through the grounds, among them Margarita Myrogianni and Terpsichore, whose painted lazy sailors were made with the ceramicist Nikos Gagiatsos.

The house was developed by Kanava Hotels & Resorts for the hoteliers Antonis Eliopoulos and Kalia Konstantinidou. That company renamed itself Empiria Group in April 2023, and it holds Cosme alongside Vedema and Mystique on Santorini under The Luxury Collection.

The suites

Suite names run Earth, Flare, Gaia, Ocean, Aether, Astro, Enastro and Cosmos, and the categories separate as much by what the terrace holds as by floor area. The Gaia Suite spans 28 to 35 sq m, open-plan, with a side view of the Aegean, and the Ocean Suite, on the ground and first floors, looks at the Aegean and the town of Naoussa. The Earth Suite takes 35 sq m with a terrace of sunbeds and an open-air dining area facing the resort’s gardens, and the 50 sq m Flare Suite sits on the ground floor with the same garden view. The Aether Suite reaches up to 40 sq m and adds a separate living area on the first floor. Three categories put water on the terrace: the Astro Suite, up to 40 sq m, with a private plunge pool; the Enastro, 60 sq m, with a large private pool and a view over the quiet grounds; and the Cosmos Suite, 60 sq m, which at the opening had a private pool, an open-air dining area and a view across the Aegean to the resort’s private beach. Every suite carries custom furniture by the Spanish designer Jaime Hayon.

The kitchens

Yiannis Kioroglou, at Parostià and Volta, leads the kitchens. He came to Cosme from La Petite Maison in Cannes and La Guerite in Saint Barth, and the house describes his cooking as ‘Medite-grecian’. Parostià stands on the beachfront and is named for the stone oven of the old Parian house; it is the lunch and dinner room. Volta, at the centre of the resort, serves breakfast, including Greek kagianas eggs from Paros. A third room, Vrosi, cooks traditional Greek recipes in an open-air garden with a wood-fired oven. The private beach club pours cocktails and light plates at the water and by the pool loungers, and Circe Bar keeps a sunset lounge.

The spa and the high ground

Elios Spa, with KORRES as its partner, sits at the highest point of the resort and is named after the Greek god of the sun. Its signature treatments include a Greek yogurt facial and a candle massage. The fitness hall runs around the clock, its Technogym equipment set in a room of Parian stone and wood that fills with daylight. Above the spa, the stargazing terrace looks over the town and the sea.

Who is this for

Cosme suits a traveller who wants the sea a short walk from the room and the whole resort crossed on foot. Gaia, Ocean, Aether and Cosmos look at the Aegean; Earth and Flare face the gardens; Astro and Enastro carry a pool on the terrace. Most categories sleep three adults, so a couple has room to spread out and a small family fits in one suite. The season runs from May to October, in the long Cycladic summer.