TINOS & SYROS Islands.

TINOS

With a population of 8,000, Tinos is considered the "sacred" island of the Greek Orthodox religion. One of the architectural attractions are the beautiful traditional dove houses. The inhabitants of the islands followed the Catholic religion just like the inhabitants of Syros island influenced by the Romans and the French. There are villages wholy occupied by Catholics.
Hora is the island's capital with many interesting monuments, such as:
- the Dormition of the Virgin church,
- the archaeological museum,
- the Catholic monastery of the Ursulin nuns and many others.

SYROS

With a population of 20,000 Syros is the administrative capital of the Cyclades islands. The island was repeatedly conquered by different masters. The most significant conquerors where the Romans and later the Venetians and the Franks. Under the rule of these two powers, Catholicism took a very strong hold of the island and Syros became the only island of the Aegean Sea with exclusively Catholic inhabitants. In 1821, refugees from other islands arrived here. They brought with them the art of modern shipbuilding and Syros turned into an important commercial and seafaring center. The Orthodox religion of these immigrants started to spread throughout the island. Today the population of the island is divided to orthodox and Catholics, but they have nothing to divide. The worst that can occur is to run from one church to the other in order to attend to the same wedding in Orthodox and Catholic version (when the couple belongs to different churches). The rest of the church festivities are celebrated together and we suggest that you attend the celebration of Easter. One of the attractions of the island is its very interesting neoclassical architecture, which makes it different from the other Cyclades.
Some sightseeing information:
- The Town Hall at the central square (designed by Ziller),
- The Apollon Theatre ( a miniature of the Milano opera house),
- The location 'Vaporia' and the church of St. Nicolas,
- Ano Syros the neighborhood of the Catholics, St. George,
- The dockyard NEORION one of the biggest and most important,
- The Church 'Kimisi tis Theotokou' where an original El Greco piece of art can be admired,
- The archeological museum, the ruins at Chalandriani location and many more.

Taste the famous "Chalvathopites" and the Turkish delights as well as the San Michali cheese.