Skiathos
Encyclopedia
Skiathos is a small Greek
island in the northwest Aegean Sea
. Skiathos is the westernmost island in the Northern Sporades
group, east of the Pelion
peninsula in Magnesia on the mainland, and west of the island of Skopelos
.
The main town is the Town of Skiathos
(pop. 4,988 in 2001) and along with the airport are located to the northeast next to a lagoon. Other settlements along the coastline are Χanemos (195), Kalyvia (179), Troulos (159), and Koukounaries
(126).
The Municipality
of Skíathos includes the islets of Tsougria
, Tsougriaki, Maragos, Arkos, Troulonisi and Aspronisi. They are scattered a few kilometres off the southeast coastline and are clearly visible from the town and the beaches. The larger island of Skopelos
is visible from Skiathos with the more distant islands of Euboea
and Skyros
visible under very clear weather conditions. Total land area of Skiathos is 50 km².
The main paved road runs all along the southeastern stretch of the island with several narrow dirt roads branching off towards the interior and the northern coast. Farmland exists around all the major settlements on the island.
Despite its small size, Skiathos with its many beaches and wooded landscape is a popular tourist destination. It has over 60, mostly sandy beaches scattered all around the 44 km coastline. Some of these are Trulos, Vromolimnos, Koukounaries, Asselinos, Megali Ammos and Mandraki.
Much of the island is wooded with Aleppo Pine
and a small Stone Pine
forest at the Koukounaries
location where there is a second lagoon and a fine-textured popular beach. The island's forests are concentrated on the southwest and northern parts but the presence of pine trees is prevalent throughout the island.
In Ancient times
, the island played a minor role during the Persian Wars. In 480 BC, the fleet of the Persian King Xerxes
was hit by a storm and was badly damaged on the rocks of the Skiathos coast. Following this the Greek fleet blockaded the adjacent seas to prevent naval invasion and provisions for the enemy of 300 Spartans who stood heroically at Thermopylae
pass. The Persian fleet was defeated there at Artemisium
and finally destroyed at the Battle of Salamis
a year later. Skiathos remained in the Delian League
until it lost its independence. The city was destroyed by Philip V of Macedon
in 200 BC.
In 1207 the Gyzi brothers captured the island and built the Bourtzi, a small Venetian-styled fortress similar to the Bourtzi
in Nafplio, on an islet just out of Skiathos Town, to protect the capital from the pirates. But the Bourtzi was ineffective in protecting the population and in the mid-14th century the inhabitants moved the capital from the ancient site that lay where modern Skiathos Town is to Kastro (the Greek word for castle), located on a high rock, overlooking a steep cliff above the sea at the northernmost part of the island.
In 1704 monks from Athos
built the Evangelistria monastery which played a part on the Greek War of Independence
as a hide-out for Greek rebels. The first flag of Greece
was created and hoisted in the Evangelistria monastery in Skiathos in 1807. Several prominent military leaders (including Theodoros Kolokotronis
and Andreas Miaoulis) had gathered there for consultation concerning an uprising, and they were sworn to this flag by the local bishop.
After the War of Independence and demise of piracy in the Aegean, Kastro became less important as a strategic location. In 1830s, the island's capital was moved to the original site — where it still remains. Today, ruins of Kastro are one of tourist attractions.
During the 19th century Skiathos became an important shipbuilding centre in the Aegean
due to the abundance of pine forests on the island. The pine woods of the island were then almost obliterated. This was brought to a halt though, due to the emergence of steamboats. A small shipwright remains north of Skiathos Town, which still builds traditional Greek caiques
.
The film Mamma Mia was partially filmed on Skiathos and nearby island Skopelos. This has increased it's popularity as a tourist destination since the release of the successful movie.
Hollywood actor Richard Romanus moved to the island in 2001 with his wife. He has written a book about his move to the island called "Act III".
islands with departures from Thessaloniki
, Volos
and Agios Konstantinos
. The boats are operated mainly by Hellenic Seaways
using its high-speed Flying Dolphin and Flying Cat vessels as well as conventional ferries.
Skiathos Island National Airport is at the northeast of the island next to a lagoon and a lowland isthmus
separating the island from the peninsula of Lazareta. As of summer 2011, Skiathos airport is served by Olympic Air flights from both Athens and Thessaloniki
, while foreign airlines provide charter flights from a range of airports of European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and Cyprus.
The modern major road runs along the eastern and southern coast. Narrower roads, some paved and some dirt, reach the interior and the northwest coastline. There is regular, and during tourist season, very frequent bus transit from the main town to the Koukounaries
beach in the southwest.
There are three bus routes on the island. The core route is from the main town to Koukounaries
beach which travels along the south coast of the island. There are in total 24 bus stops, with Koukounaries Beach being the last stop, number 24. This route operates a fleet of five coaches as frequently as five times an hour during the summer peak season throughout the day, but is significantly reduced during the winter. The second route departs from Skiathos Town, to the Monastery of Evangelistria at an hourly daily schedule and the third bus route to Xanemos on the north coast with up to six round trips daily, both operated using mini-buses.
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
island in the northwest Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
. Skiathos is the westernmost island in the Northern Sporades
Sporades
The Sporades are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea, in the Aegean Sea. It consists of 24 islands, of which four are permanently inhabited: Alonnisos, Skiathos, Skopelos and Skyros.-Administration:...
group, east of the Pelion
Pelion
Pelion or Pelium is a mountain at the southeastern part of Thessaly in central Greece, forming a hook-like peninsula between the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea...
peninsula in Magnesia on the mainland, and west of the island of Skopelos
Skopelos
Skopelos , ancient Peparethos or Peparethus , is a Greek island in the western Aegean Sea. Skopelos is one of several islands which comprise the Northern Sporades island group. The island is located east of mainland Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea and is part of the Thessaly Periphery....
.
Geography
The island has a northeastern to southwestern direction and is about 12 km long and 6 km wide on average. The coastline is indented with up to 65 sandy beaches, inlets, capes and peninsulas. The southeast and southwest parts have gentler slopes and that is where most of the sandy beaches, settlements and facilities are located. The terrain is hilly but more rugged on the north coast, with the highest peak at 433 m. There is a communications tower on this peak.The main town is the Town of Skiathos
Skiathos (town)
Skiathos , Latin forms: Sciathos and Sciathus is a city on an island of the same name in the Aegean Sea belonging to Greece. Skiathos town has a school, a lyceum, a gymnasium, many churches, banks, a post office, and a square...
(pop. 4,988 in 2001) and along with the airport are located to the northeast next to a lagoon. Other settlements along the coastline are Χanemos (195), Kalyvia (179), Troulos (159), and Koukounaries
Koukounaries
Koukounaries is a location and a beach in the southwest part of the island of Skiathos in Greece. It is 16 km southwest of the main town on the island. Skiathos is part of the Sporades group of islands in the Northern Aegean Sea....
(126).
The Municipality
Communities and Municipalities of Greece
For the new municipalities of Greece see the Kallikratis ProgrammeThe municipalities and communities of Greece are one of several levels of government within the organizational structure of that country. Thirteen regions called peripheries form the largest unit of government beneath the State. ...
of Skíathos includes the islets of Tsougria
Tsougria
Tsougria , also Tsoungkria is a Greek island and an abandoned settlement in the western part of the Sporades. It is administratively part of the municipality of Skiathos and is located southeast of the island. The island also features a beach as well....
, Tsougriaki, Maragos, Arkos, Troulonisi and Aspronisi. They are scattered a few kilometres off the southeast coastline and are clearly visible from the town and the beaches. The larger island of Skopelos
Skopelos
Skopelos , ancient Peparethos or Peparethus , is a Greek island in the western Aegean Sea. Skopelos is one of several islands which comprise the Northern Sporades island group. The island is located east of mainland Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea and is part of the Thessaly Periphery....
is visible from Skiathos with the more distant islands of Euboea
Euboea
Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...
and Skyros
Skyros
Skyros is an island in Greece, the southernmost of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC and slightly later, the island was known as The Island of the Magnetes where the Magnetes used to live and later Pelasgia and Dolopia and later Skyros...
visible under very clear weather conditions. Total land area of Skiathos is 50 km².
The main paved road runs all along the southeastern stretch of the island with several narrow dirt roads branching off towards the interior and the northern coast. Farmland exists around all the major settlements on the island.
Despite its small size, Skiathos with its many beaches and wooded landscape is a popular tourist destination. It has over 60, mostly sandy beaches scattered all around the 44 km coastline. Some of these are Trulos, Vromolimnos, Koukounaries, Asselinos, Megali Ammos and Mandraki.
Much of the island is wooded with Aleppo Pine
Aleppo Pine
Pinus halepensis, commonly known as the Aleppo Pine, is a pine native to the Mediterranean region. Their range extends from Morocco and Spain north to southern France, Italy and Croatia, and east to Greece and northern Tunisia, and Libya, with an outlying population in Syria, Lebanon, southern...
and a small Stone Pine
Stone Pine
The Stone Pine , is also called Italian Stone Pine, or Umbrella Pine , and Parasol Pine. It is in the pine family Pinaceae and occasionally listed under the invalid name Pinus sativa. The tree is native to the Mediterranean region...
forest at the Koukounaries
Koukounaries
Koukounaries is a location and a beach in the southwest part of the island of Skiathos in Greece. It is 16 km southwest of the main town on the island. Skiathos is part of the Sporades group of islands in the Northern Aegean Sea....
location where there is a second lagoon and a fine-textured popular beach. The island's forests are concentrated on the southwest and northern parts but the presence of pine trees is prevalent throughout the island.
History
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, the island played a minor role during the Persian Wars. In 480 BC, the fleet of the Persian King Xerxes
Xerxes I of Persia
Xerxes I of Persia , Ḫšayāršā, ), also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fifth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire.-Youth and rise to power:...
was hit by a storm and was badly damaged on the rocks of the Skiathos coast. Following this the Greek fleet blockaded the adjacent seas to prevent naval invasion and provisions for the enemy of 300 Spartans who stood heroically at Thermopylae
Thermopylae
Thermopylae is a location in Greece where a narrow coastal passage existed in antiquity. It derives its name from its hot sulphur springs. "Hot gates" is also "the place of hot springs and cavernous entrances to Hades"....
pass. The Persian fleet was defeated there at Artemisium
Battle of Artemisium
The Battle of Artemisium was a series of naval engagements over three days during the second Persian invasion of Greece. The battle took place simultaneously with the more famous land battle at Thermopylae, in August or September 480 BC, off the coast of Euboea and was fought between an alliance of...
and finally destroyed at the Battle of Salamis
Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was fought between an Alliance of Greek city-states and the Persian Empire in September 480 BCE, in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens...
a year later. Skiathos remained in the Delian League
Delian League
The Delian League, founded in circa 477 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150 to 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco–Persian Wars...
until it lost its independence. The city was destroyed by Philip V of Macedon
Philip V of Macedon
Philip V was King of Macedon from 221 BC to 179 BC. Philip's reign was principally marked by an unsuccessful struggle with the emerging power of Rome. Philip was attractive and charismatic as a young man...
in 200 BC.
In 1207 the Gyzi brothers captured the island and built the Bourtzi, a small Venetian-styled fortress similar to the Bourtzi
Bourtzi
The castle of Bourtzi is located in the middle of the harbour of Nafplio. The Venetians completed its fortification in 1473 to protect the city from pirates and invaders from the sea. The Greeks regained it from the Turks on June 18, 1822, from where they assisted in the siege of Nafplio. Until...
in Nafplio, on an islet just out of Skiathos Town, to protect the capital from the pirates. But the Bourtzi was ineffective in protecting the population and in the mid-14th century the inhabitants moved the capital from the ancient site that lay where modern Skiathos Town is to Kastro (the Greek word for castle), located on a high rock, overlooking a steep cliff above the sea at the northernmost part of the island.
In 1704 monks from Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
built the Evangelistria monastery which played a part on the Greek War of Independence
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...
as a hide-out for Greek rebels. The first flag of Greece
Flag of Greece
The flag of Greece , officially recognized by Greece as one of its national symbols, is based on nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white...
was created and hoisted in the Evangelistria monastery in Skiathos in 1807. Several prominent military leaders (including Theodoros Kolokotronis
Theodoros Kolokotronis
Theodoros Kolokotronis was a Greek Field Marshal and one of the leaders of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire....
and Andreas Miaoulis) had gathered there for consultation concerning an uprising, and they were sworn to this flag by the local bishop.
After the War of Independence and demise of piracy in the Aegean, Kastro became less important as a strategic location. In 1830s, the island's capital was moved to the original site — where it still remains. Today, ruins of Kastro are one of tourist attractions.
During the 19th century Skiathos became an important shipbuilding centre in the Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
due to the abundance of pine forests on the island. The pine woods of the island were then almost obliterated. This was brought to a halt though, due to the emergence of steamboats. A small shipwright remains north of Skiathos Town, which still builds traditional Greek caiques
Caïque
A caïque , is the term for a traditional fishing boat usually found among the waters of the Ionian or Aegean Seas, and also a light skiff used on the Bosporus. It is traditionally a small wooden trading vessel, brightly painted and rigged for sail...
.
The film Mamma Mia was partially filmed on Skiathos and nearby island Skopelos. This has increased it's popularity as a tourist destination since the release of the successful movie.
Hollywood actor Richard Romanus moved to the island in 2001 with his wife. He has written a book about his move to the island called "Act III".
Transportation
There is a regular boat service to the island and the rest of the SporadesSporades
The Sporades are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea, in the Aegean Sea. It consists of 24 islands, of which four are permanently inhabited: Alonnisos, Skiathos, Skopelos and Skyros.-Administration:...
islands with departures from Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
, Volos
Volos
Volos is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about 326 km north of Athens and 215 km south of Thessaloniki...
and Agios Konstantinos
Agios Konstantinos, Phthiotis
Agios Konstantinos is a town and former municipality in Phthiotida , Greece. After the 2011 administrative division reforms it became part of the municipality of Molos-Agios Konstantinos and it is now ranked as a municipal unit. Its population was 3,410 in 2001.The town has a harbor with a regular...
. The boats are operated mainly by Hellenic Seaways
Hellenic Seaways
Hellenic Seaways is a Greek shipping company operating passenger and freight ferry services in the Aegean and Adriatic Seas. The company is owned by Cyprus based Sea Star Capital Plc.-History:...
using its high-speed Flying Dolphin and Flying Cat vessels as well as conventional ferries.
Skiathos Island National Airport is at the northeast of the island next to a lagoon and a lowland isthmus
Isthmus
An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas usually with waterforms on either side.Canals are often built through isthmuses where they may be particularly advantageous to create a shortcut for marine transportation...
separating the island from the peninsula of Lazareta. As of summer 2011, Skiathos airport is served by Olympic Air flights from both Athens and Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
, while foreign airlines provide charter flights from a range of airports of European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and Cyprus.
The modern major road runs along the eastern and southern coast. Narrower roads, some paved and some dirt, reach the interior and the northwest coastline. There is regular, and during tourist season, very frequent bus transit from the main town to the Koukounaries
Koukounaries
Koukounaries is a location and a beach in the southwest part of the island of Skiathos in Greece. It is 16 km southwest of the main town on the island. Skiathos is part of the Sporades group of islands in the Northern Aegean Sea....
beach in the southwest.
There are three bus routes on the island. The core route is from the main town to Koukounaries
Koukounaries
Koukounaries is a location and a beach in the southwest part of the island of Skiathos in Greece. It is 16 km southwest of the main town on the island. Skiathos is part of the Sporades group of islands in the Northern Aegean Sea....
beach which travels along the south coast of the island. There are in total 24 bus stops, with Koukounaries Beach being the last stop, number 24. This route operates a fleet of five coaches as frequently as five times an hour during the summer peak season throughout the day, but is significantly reduced during the winter. The second route departs from Skiathos Town, to the Monastery of Evangelistria at an hourly daily schedule and the third bus route to Xanemos on the north coast with up to six round trips daily, both operated using mini-buses.
Notable residents
- Alexandros PapadiamantisAlexandros PapadiamantisAlexandros Papadiamantis was an influential Greek novelist and short-story writer.-His life:Papadiamantis was born in Greece, on the island of Skiathos, in the western part of the Aegean Sea. The island would figure prominently in his work. His father was a priest...
(1851–1911) writer