The island of Naxos

We spent a week in Naxos, the largest of the Cyclades and one of the most fertile. Regular readers of this blog will know my penchant for the Cyclades, and Naxos was one of the few I had not visited. 

Naxos has a rich history. The island has been uninterruptedly inhabited since the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millenium Cycladic culture developed and Naxos was one of the most important centres. There is evidence that the island had a dense population at that time, mostly spread in small settlements on its eastern side.

It was in Naxos that the large-scale plastic arts - art forms which involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium by molding or modelling such as sculpture or ceramics - were first developed. The abundance of marble on the island undoubtedly contributed to this development.

The significant Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its schematic flat female idols carved out of the island's pure white marble. (Who said that minimalism was a modern invention?)

According to Greek mythology, the young Zeus was raised in a cave on Mt Zas (Zas meaning Zeus), the highest mountain peak in the Cyclades, rising at an altitude of 1004 metres.

Much later, during the Heroic Age before the Trojan War, legend has it that Theseus abandoned Ariadne on this island after she helped him kill the Minotaur and escape from the Labyrinth. Dionysus, god of wine, festivities and the primal energy of life, who was the protector of the island, met Ariadne and fell in love with her. But, eventually Ariadne, unable to bear her separation from Theseus, either killed herself, or according to another legend, ascended to heaven.

During the Christian period between 1207 and 1537 Naxos was occupied by the Venetians. Evidence of Venetian rule is present throughout the island

an example is the castle the Venetians built, the walls of which you can see here in this photograph taken from the harbour.

There is so much to see and do in Naxos: the temple of Demeter; the two Kouroi, the Kouros of Melanes and the Kouros at Apollonas; the church of Panagia Drossiani; the monastery of Fotodotis and of Kalamitsia - to name just a few. We had so many plans about seeing it all and in the end we did very little:  we swam, walked about the Chora and had wonderful meals - very relaxing and enjoyable, but now I feel that another trip to the island is due, so that we can see all those amazing sites.

The island is also famous for its wonderful beaches. Again, we did not sample much. 

We visited the beach in Plaka, 5 kilometres of sand and sea and it was magical

But, in the end, we decided that we really liked the beach in the Hora, the capital of the island which is where we were staying: it was a 5-minute walk from our hotel, no need to take the bus, and we were lazy and very relaxed and it suited us very well.

Naxos is also famous for its local cuisine, and the food was very good indeed.

We ate here, at Ellinikon, twice as the food, the service and the ambience were excellent.