Sifnos has been the pottery capital of the Aegean for centuries, and close to 20 studios still make the jars and pots that leave the island. The fast ferry from Athens takes 2 hours 30 minutes. The island is known for its quiet, and has little nightlife.
Stamna Sifnos opened on a hillside above Apollonia, the island’s main village, in May 2025. It is the first hotel by the twin brothers Nikos and Costas Antimissaris, and neither of them came to it from hospitality. Its name is the Greek word for a ceramic pot, in honour of the trade the island is known for.
The hotel was built to a single rule. Every natural material in it, and every pair of hands that worked on it, came from within 80 nautical miles.
The setting
The property covers 13,000 square metres of hillside, 10 minutes on foot from Apollonia and far enough away for the village to fall out of sight. The buildings follow the slope without cutting into it, and the plants already growing there stayed where they were.
The 15 rooms and five suites all face east, towards the sunrise over the sea, and each has its own terrace or patio. They are split into separate buildings among gardens and dry-stone walls, so the hotel looks like a small Cycladic village and not one large block.
A pool sits within a Mediterranean garden. Beside it, a shaded area holds gym equipment and a floor for daily yoga, Pilates and meditation.
The design
Tsimpos and Associates designed both the buildings and the interiors. Theodosios Tsimpos and Konstantinos Kouros worked on the architecture, and Kouros worked with Empi Spathi on the interiors. Their stated motto was “from local to global”.
The floors are marble from the islands of Tinos, Naxos and Paros, and the mortars contain earth from Santorini. Regional craftspeople made the furniture to order in cast iron, ribbed glass and olive wood.
Three colours run through the interiors: brick red for the island’s potters, leaf green for the garden and dusty blue for nostalgia. They are set against whitewash and stone.
The 80-mile rule
The rule governed the construction itself. Stone, wood and lime came from inside the circle, and so did the labour. The insulation is certified recycled material, also sourced from within it.
Seaweed is laid in layers on the roofs, both for protection and for insulation. Builders on the island once used fig wood for beams, joints and floors. Here, the fig trees on the plot feed the kitchen instead.
Rainwater from the unplanted terraces runs into underground tanks and returns to the gardens as irrigation, along with treated water from a private purification plant. Rain that falls on paths and open ground soaks away where it lands.
The clay
Early in the project the brothers found the oldest pottery workshop on Sifnos. They asked its owner, Giannis Atsonios, to make every ceramic piece in the hotel, in the rooms and the shared spaces alike.
The hotel takes its name from the stamna, the pot, and the restaurant takes its name from pilós, the Greek word for clay.
The relationship continued after the work was done. The brothers send guests to the workshop for pottery classes, and Atsonios often comes to dine at the hotel with his family, among the pieces he made for it.
The restaurant
Pilōs serves dinner outdoors and family style, among olive wood under reed pergolas, with an open view of the Aegean. Gikas Xenakis is the consultant chef. He has been head chef at the restaurant Aleria since 2012.
The cooking uses Greek produce and local recipes, prepared in a modern way: dolmadaki tartar, orzo with shrimp, marinated courgette and an aubergine pasticcio. A list of wines from Greek vineyards goes with them.
In the morning the same space is set for breakfast, with kalitsounia pies, Sifnos Loli and kagianas. Vegetables, herbs and fruit come from the Bostani garden and from the olive, fig and almond trees already on the land.
The brothers
Nikos Antimissaris led international financial services companies across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Costas Antimissaris built a career in fashion retail with Zara, and went on to oversee several brands in Greece and Spain.
They found Sifnos in 2011, during one of the summers their two families spent travelling around the islands. More than a decade passed between that holiday and the opening.
“We tried to integrate with humility, not as outside investors but as future neighbors hoping to create something the island could be proud of,” says Nikos Antimissaris.
Who is this for
Stamna suits travellers who want to walk Sifnos and see its villages, with a small hotel as their base. Kastro, Artemonas and the monastery at Chrissopigi are within 15 minutes by car. The island has more than 100 kilometres of hiking trails and a coastline of small beaches. The brothers meet their guests at the port themselves. From the terraces, dry-stone field walls and scattered white houses run down to the sea, and across a stone wall a blue-domed church rises in Apollonia.
