The Old Markets is a hotel in the galleria of shops that was once the trading floor of Symi’s Agora, on the Kali Strata, Ano Symi, 100m from the harbour. The building is 19th century and part of a protected heritage area. The Agora building and the Captain’s Mansion next door hold 7 rooms and 3 suites between them, and each one was designed around the period features it came with.
Symi lies one hour from Rhodes in the Dodecanese, and its harbour holds fishing boats and large yachts together. A porter will meet a guest off their yacht or ferry and carry the luggage up to the hotel. The island’s beaches are reached by water taxi, which runs each day from the harbour below.
The restoration
A restoration overseen by the National Monuments Commission was completed in 2010. It followed a philosophy of minimal intervention, so that a future generation could turn the building back into a market. That condition is why eight of the historic shops became four guest rooms. The rooms were then filled with antiques and with furniture made for the project, alongside luxury linen and modern comforts. By the hotel’s own account, the pieces include silver that once stood on the dining table of King George I of the Hellenes, and items from London’s Savoy Hotel.
The mansion
In 2017 the hotel acquired the neighbouring mansion and converted it to add rooms and suites. The Captain’s Mansion holds two harbour-view suites with private balconies and three further bedrooms, set among gardens and terraces. Its original pool house was repurposed in 2024 to make Agora, the hotel’s restaurant.
The rooms
Two of the rooms in the old Agora building carry the names of the trade routes that supplied the market. The Alexandrian, laid out across two converted shops, takes its styling from Symi’s ancient trading route to the Egyptian coast. The Venetian is named for the shiploads of sponges that Symian divers collected and sent to Venice for distribution to clients across Europe, and it is furnished with period Italian paintings of the city. The Ottoman room was the market’s bakery, and its en-suite is built inside the old oven in the manner of a hammam.
The Symi Suite has the first floor that was once the home of the market’s owners. It keeps a fully restored moussandra, the sleeping platform common in many of Symi’s houses, under a painted ceiling of the kind found locally in the grander sea captains’ mansions. Five picture windows frame the port outside.
In the Captain’s Mansion, the Aegean Suite runs to 70 square metres under lofty painted ceilings, with a private courtyard entrance, harbour views and a balcony. The Ouranos Suite is the penthouse at the top of the building, 50 square metres reached by a private external stair, with one balcony off the bedroom and another off the living room. Three further rooms fill the mansion: Chondros on the ground floor, in the secluded courtyard garden; Stroggilos beside the same garden, near the Agora restaurant; and Nimos, with high ceilings, a traditional moussandra and a small balcony over the harbour.
The table
Agora, in the former pool house, has served dinner every night from May to October since 2024. Its chef is Christos Sidiropoulos, who came to Symi from Hytra in Athens, where he was chef de cuisine. He cooks a seasonal Greek menu from local ingredients, many of which he collects himself by foraging. Dinner reservations are essential. A Champagne breakfast is served to guests each morning from 8am to 11am, and Aethera, the terrace bar, serves cocktails and light food over the harbour from 6pm to 11pm.
Taking a building
The hotel’s season runs from 1 May to 31 October, and in winter it takes bookings on request for exclusive use only. A party can take the whole hotel, or either building on its own, with a minimum of six nights: the Captain’s Mansion and its gardens are a house for one group, and the Agora building another. The hotel says neither building is ideally suited to children under eight or to guests with mobility difficulties.
Who is this for
The Old Markets suits a couple, or a party taking a building to themselves, who are content to walk: the harbour is reached on foot down the Kali Strata. Chorio, the hilltop village above it, is a labyrinth of narrow streets laid out to confuse pirates, and the remains of the castle give a view over to the Turkish coast. The centre of the island is forested with cypress, and the road south ends at the monastery at Panormitis, which draws pilgrims for its miracles.
