Astypalea

Astypalea belongs administratively to the Dodecanese but looks Cycladic, white cube houses climbing to a ridge where eight restored windmills stand in a row and a Venetian castle of the Querini family crowns the summit; two churches were built into its gatehouse. The island is shaped like a butterfly, two lobes joined by an isthmus 100 metres wide at Steno. The eastern lobe is emptier, with the long beach at Vatses, the cave of Negrou and tracks leading to remote coves; the western holds the Chora, the port at Pera Gialos and the beaches at Livadi and Tzanaki. The island has become a testbed for electric transport and renewable energy, and a Bronze Age children's cemetery excavated at Kylindra is one of the largest known anywhere.

History

In myth Astypalaia was a woman carried off by Poseidon, and the island was colonised by Megara or possibly Epidaurus; Pliny the Elder records that Rome granted it the status of a free state. In the Middle Ages it belonged to Byzantium and probably passed to the Latins after the Fourth Crusade, and as Stampalia it is first mentioned in 1334, during a devastating raid by Umur of Aydin (Wikipedia, Astypalaia).

The landscape

• The Chora and castle - a white town under a Venetian fortress with churches in its gate.
• The windmill row - eight restored mills on the ridge below the castle.
• The isthmus at Steno - the hundred-metre neck joining the island's halves.
• The remote beaches - Vatses, Kaminakia and coves on the eastern lobe.

When to go

May, June and September; the island is far from Athens by boat, so flights or Amorgos connections help. August fills the limited rooms with Greek visitors. Winter is quiet with sparse ferries.

Practical notes

Getting there is the main obstacle: the direct ferry from Piraeus takes most of a day and runs a few times a week. Roads to the eastern beaches are rough and need a sturdy vehicle. Facilities are concentrated around the Chora and port.

Nearby

Amorgos and the Small Cyclades lie west; Kos and the Dodecanese are east.

Key facts