Patmos - Chora and the Monastery of Saint John

Patmos is where Christian tradition places one of history's most consequential visions: exiled to the island around 95 AD, Saint John is held to have received and dictated the Book of Revelation in a hillside grotto - now the Cave of the Apocalypse, a chapel-wrapped hollow halfway up the road from Skala. Above it, the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian has crowned the hill since 1088, when the monk Christodoulos received the island from Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos; its dark battlemented walls read as fortress first and monastery second, built to shrug off pirates. Around its feet spreads Chora, an amphitheatre of white captains' mansions and lanes so narrow they stay cool at noon. The whole ensemble - Chora, monastery and cave - was inscribed by UNESCO in 1999, and the monastery's treasury holds manuscripts, icons and vestments from a thousand continuous years of monastic life.

What you actually see

• The Cave of the Apocalypse - the grotto of the vision, wrapped in chapels.
• The monastery courtyard - arcades, bells and frescoes within fortress walls.
• The treasury museum - icons, vestments and centuries-old manuscripts.
• Chora's lanes - white mansions and shaded alleys around the walls.

When to go

May to June and September to October give warm seas without the July-August squeeze. Time the monastery for early morning - cruise and excursion boats deliver crowds to the cave and courtyard by mid-morning on port days.

Honest expectations

Dress codes are enforced - covered shoulders and knees, wraps sometimes provided - and the working monastery closes sections without notice. The famous library is not open to casual visitors; the treasury museum is the compensation. Patmos has no airport, so the ferry is the price of the quiet.

Nearby

Skala's harbour front, Grikos bay and the beaches of Psili Ammos and Kampos.