Astypalaia: What you should visit: Chora (Part 4)

The capital city of Astypalaia is Chora. It is castled on a peak covered by the ruins of the late medieval castle once belonged to the Venetian family, the Quirinis. A Byzantine monastery raises inside the walls of the castle and it is dedicated to Our Lady of Panagia Portaitissa. Two white cupolas spread above the bricks of the ruined fortress. The castle still hosted few inhabitants until the beginning of last century, but by the increasing urbanization some families moved away and left it definitively because of an earthquake that destroyed the north-eastern walls in 1956.

From the Castle Chora spreads downward in a semicircle. The most ancient nucleus is just formed by the ‘castrum’ and the nearby houses named ‘xocastra’ which date back to 1417-1750. The second semicircle of houses was built from 1750 to 1870. The third one developed from 1870 to 1912. The last one was built from 1946 onwards and it links the harbor to the castle. It is named ‘Spina’.

Astypalaia' s arrangement has followed a downward movement for strategic reasons. When the castle wasn’t connected to the sea, it was hard to conquer it on the one hand; on the other the castellans could longer resist to sieges and better control arrivals of eventual suspicious boats.

Chora’s road are tight and curvilinear alternate by flight of steps. They follow a weaving that seems impossible to loose at first sight, but ‘every road leads to the Castrum’. The Houses are square-shaped and have a flat roof. They raise up to the third floor so that thay better exploit the room; they are called ‘monospito’ because each floor has just one room where a whole family used to live in the past. The houses are all white colored and have the typical wood colorful main doors that gives a pleasant contrasting effect to one’s eyes. Every house has got its own vase of plants, colored flowers or good smelling oleander on the stairs which decorate the main entrance.

Downtown Chora there are eight wind mills along the main road called Spina. They were in work in the past and the corn used to be milled there.