Construction began at Ermioni in September 2025 on a marina that will hold 256 yachts, the largest of them 60 metres. The project’s masterplan was approved in the same month. For years this shore has been an unmarked stop between Hydra, Spetses, Dokos and Porto Heli. It is now being given a proper harbour, and full operation is expected by the summer of 2027.
A sheltered bay
The marina is in the bay of Ermioni, southeastern Argolis, on the eastern Peloponnese. The bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Hydra and is counted among the most naturally sheltered bays of the Argo-Saronic, the gulfs and islands south-west of Athens. The marina takes 96.3 stremmas of water and 20.4 stremmas of land. A stremma is the Greek unit of land area, equal to 1,000 square metres. That is a small footprint for a harbour of this size, and a deliberate one.
The geography has always made the case. A yacht cruising this coast passes Ermioni on almost every leg, and until now it has kept going. The bay already had shelter. The new harbour adds the depth and the servicing.
The harbour
The basin is dredged to 4.5 metres. Boats enter through a mouth 62 metres wide, and inside there is a turning circle of 70 metres. Four floating concrete piers, 385 metres long in total, carry 256 berths: 231 permanent, 25 seasonal. They take motor and sailing vessels of up to 60 metres.
These numbers decide who can come. At 60 metres, the choice of harbours in the Aegean narrows sharply. A harbour that gives such a vessel a permanent berth, and more than a night tied up along a quay, is a real change.
Stone the colour of murex
On land, 2,300 square metres of building are spread across 26 structures, mostly of one and two storeys. All are drawn to a consistent height line of three metres, so the whole reads as a continuation of the town and does not stand apart from it. The walls are grey local stone and coloured plaster in porphyry tones, with light purple and pink mixed into the surfaces themselves.
The colour has a source. Ancient Hermione, the city that stood here, drew its wealth from the murex, a sea snail that yielded a purple dye. The palette refers directly to it. It is rare for a commercial harbour to reach that far back for its materials, and rarer still to carry the reference in the plaster instead of on a plaque.
Behind the buildings are administration offices, shops, restaurants and a private hotel of 20 rooms. Cars and parking are kept out of sight at the back, leaving the waterfront wholly for people on foot. Two flights of steps, laid out like an amphitheatre, lead from the promenade down to the sea. At least 2,000 square metres are given over to planting.
The team
The project is owned by Ermionida S.A., with Tethys and EMMA Capital taking part in the investment company behind it. Neiheiser Argyros is responsible for the architecture, the masterplan for the land and the landscape design. Marnet S.A. leads the masterplan for the sea, the design of the marine works and the environmental study. Hill International is the project manager. Trésor Hospitality has developed the business plan and pre-opening services for the hotel, which it will also run.
The division of work matters. A marina is really two projects under one name, one of marine engineering and one of building a piece of town, and they are rarely held by the same firm. Here they are separated cleanly and meet at the waterline.
For yacht owners
The Argo-Saronic has long been cruised because it is close to Athens, more than for its harbours. It gives an easy first night out of Athens, a run down to Hydra and Spetses, and a week that never needs to cross open water. It has also been where a larger yacht runs out of berths first.
Room for 60 metres on this shore changes the shape of that week. A vessel can be based at Ermioni instead of passing it. The Argolid lies behind it, with Nafplio, Epidaurus and the rest of the eastern Peloponnese within an afternoon by road, and Hydra is a short crossing away. The hotel of 20 rooms points to the other half of the idea: guests who join a yacht for part of a passage, and those who would rather sleep ashore.
The drawings are unusually restrained for a development of this size. The test is whether the harbour keeps that restraint through to 2027, since the temptation on a waterfront is always to add.
Who is this for
Ermioni will suit an owner looking for a quiet home port on the edge of a small town, and guests who like to step off a yacht and walk straight into the streets. The renderings show narrow lanes of plaster, rough stone and perforated brick, strung with lights, with small tables set out at dusk. Timber pergolas shade the promenade. In the hotel, rooms in pale plaster have square windows that frame the town across the water.
