Chios · Towns & villages

Towns & villages of Chios

Harbour towns, mountain hamlets and the places where island life still follows its own rhythm.

The mastic villages

Mesta

A medieval fortress village of vaulted lanes, built to hide its mastic

The best-preserved of the mastic villages, and one of the most remarkable villages in Greece. Mesta is a castle in the shape of a village: the outer houses form its walls, and inside, a maze of narrow stone lanes runs under arches and vaults, so you walk through it as if through one great building. Everything leads to the little square, where the tables of the tavernas sit beneath the big church of the Taxiarchis.

Getting lost in the vaulted lanes
Dinner on the square under the Taxiarchis
Walking on the flat roofs, as the villagers once did
The mastic groves all around

Discover Mesta

The mastic villages

Pyrgi

The painted village, its houses scratched in black-and-white patterns

The largest of the mastic villages, and one of the strangest and loveliest in Greece. Almost every house is covered in xysta, geometric patterns of triangles, circles and flowers scratched into grey plaster over whitewash, so the lanes look like they have been embroidered. In the middle stands the little Byzantine church of the Holy Apostles, painted inside with frescoes, and around the square the tomatoes and strings of peppers hang from the balconies in late summer.

The xysta patterns on every wall
The Byzantine church of Agioi Apostoloi
Strings of tomatoes drying on the balconies
The Chios Mastic Museum nearby

Discover Pyrgi

Chios Town & Kampos

Chios Town

A real Greek port town, with a Byzantine castle and windmills on the shore

The island's capital, called simply Chora, is a working harbour town rather than a postcard: cafés along the long waterfront, a busy market behind it, and life that goes on all year. Inside the walls of the Byzantine and Genoese castle is the old quarter, with Ottoman fountains, a small mosque and quiet lanes. Around Vounaki square are the Byzantine Museum in an old mosque, the public garden and the great Korais Library, and to the north the old windmills of Tampakika stand on the rocks by the sea.

The old quarter inside the castle walls
The windmills of Tampakika at sunset
The Korais Library and the Argenti collection
An evening volta along the waterfront

Discover Chios Town

Chios Town & Kampos

Kampos

Stone mansions behind high walls, lost in a forest of lemon and mandarin trees

Just south of Chios Town lies a plain of citrus orchards, criss-crossed by narrow lanes between high walls of honey-coloured stone. Behind the gates are the mansions the Genoese lords and the merchant families of Chios built from the 14th to the 19th centuries, each with its courtyard, its marble cistern and its old waterwheel, the manganos, once turned by a donkey. Several have been restored as small hotels, so you can sleep among the orange trees and wake to their scent in spring.

Cycling the walled lanes
The scent of citrus blossom in April
Sleeping in a restored mansion
The old waterwheels and marble cisterns

Discover Kampos

The central hills

Anavatos & Avgonyma

A ghost village on a cliff, and a living one that looks out to sea

In the wild hills west of Nea Moni, the abandoned village of Anavatos is built on a rock so steep that its stone houses seem to grow out of the cliff. In 1822, during the massacre of Chios, its people chose to throw themselves from the top rather than be taken, and it has stood empty and silent since. A few kilometres away, Avgonyma is its opposite: a small medieval village of restored stone houses, with a taverna on the square and a view down to the west coast and the sunset.

Climbing up through the ruins of Anavatos
Sunset from Avgonyma
The monastery of Nea Moni nearby
The quiet beaches of Elinda and Lithi below

Discover Anavatos & Avgonyma

The north

Volissos

Homer's village, under a Byzantine castle in the far north-west

The main village of the north, built on a hill crowned by a Byzantine fortress, with stone houses tumbling down below it towards the sea. Tradition says Homer lived here, and the empty, beautiful coast around it has some of the best beaches on the island, Managros, Lefkathia and Limnos, with the fishing harbour of Limnia just below for grilled fish and boats to Psara.

The Byzantine castle above the village
The long beach of Managros
Fish at the harbour of Limnia
The road to the monastery of Agia Markella

Discover Volissos

The mastic villages

Emporios & Mavra Volia

A little harbour in the south, and a beach of black volcanic pebbles

In the far south, below Pyrgi, a deep bay holds the small fishing harbour of Emporios, with a few tavernas by the water. On the hill above are the remains of an ancient town and a temple of Athena, and just over the headland lies Mavra Volia, a cove of smooth black volcanic pebbles and deep blue water, one of the most striking beaches in the Aegean.

Swimming at Mavra Volia
Lunch by the boats in Emporios
The ancient acropolis on Profitis Ilias hill
Pyrgi, 10 minutes up the road

Discover Emporios & Mavra Volia

Regions

Where to base yourself in Chios

Chios Town & Kampos

The harbour capital with its castle quarter, museums and windmills, the walled citrus estates of Kampos just south, and the beach of Karfas.

The mastic villages

The fortified medieval villages of the south, Mesta, Pyrgi and Olympi, among the mastic groves, with the black pebbles of Mavra Volia below.

The central hills

Pine forests and the monastery of Nea Moni, the ghost village of Anavatos, Avgonyma, and the west-coast beaches of Lithi and Elinda.

The north

Wild mountains and shipowners' villages, Homer's stone at Vrontados, the harbours of Lagada and Kardamyla, and Volissos under its castle.

Find a place to stay

Browse hotels and guesthouses across Chios, filtered by region and price.

Browse hotels