Serifos

Serifos is dry, rocky and sparsely populated, and its Chora is the sight: white houses stacked up a steep cone above the port of Livadi, crowned by a ruined Venetian castle, with lanes so narrow and steep that the upper town is reached only on foot. In myth this is where Perseus grew up and where he turned the king to stone with the Gorgon's head, which explains the island's stony reputation. From the late nineteenth century Serifos was mined for iron ore, and the industrial remains, loading bays at Megalo Livadi, rusting rails, tunnels and the ruins of company buildings, stand along the western coast as an unusual layer over a Cycladic landscape. Beaches are numerous and mostly empty, from sandy Livadakia and Psili Ammos to remote coves reached on foot.

History

In myth Danaë and the infant Perseus washed ashore on Serifos after her father Acrisius set them adrift in a chest, and Perseus later turned the island's king Polydectes to stone with the head of Medusa. Colonised by Ionians from Athens, Serifos was one of the few islands that refused to submit to Xerxes, though later writers mention it with contempt for its poverty, and the Roman emperors used it as a place of exile; after 1204 it came under Venetian rule, its mines reopened after about 1,000 years, and in 1394 the miners went on strike against Nikolaos Adoldos (Wikipedia, Serifos).

What's there

• The Chora - a white town spilling down a cone with a castle above.
• The mining remains - loading piers, rails and ruins at Megalo Livadi.
• The empty beaches - sandy and pebble bays scattered around the coast.
• The old paths - stone routes across the bare interior to chapels and coves.

When to go

May, June and September for warm sea and comfortable walking; the island is bare and offers no shade in midsummer. August brings Athenian visitors but Serifos stays quieter than its neighbours.

Before you go

The Chora involves serious stair climbing, and cars stop well below the top. The island is dry and treeless, which some find stark. Facilities are concentrated in Livadi; elsewhere there is very little.

Nearby

Sifnos lies south; Kythnos north, with Piraeus a few hours away by fast boat.

Key facts