Kythira tours are small-group trips on Kythira, an island facing the far south-east of the Peloponnese. It lies between Crete and the Greek mainland. This page covers its Venetian and British past, the hidden town of Paliochora and Mitata. It ends with Kastri, famous art, the ports and the island hospital. Related pages cover a Peloponnese road trip and a Mani peninsula tour. More trips appear on the Greece tours page.
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What are Kythira tours?
Kythira tours centre on an island that once served as a crossroads for merchants, sailors and conquerors. This lasted from ancient times to the mid-19th century. Its buildings mix traditional, Aegean and Venetian features. Venetian means linked to the Republic of Venice.
Island customs grew out of centuries in which Greek and Venetian cultures lived side by side. Kythira and Antikythera were once separate municipalities. Their merger came with a reform of local councils in 2011. A reform is a planned change. Kythira tours belong to that joint municipality, which covers 300.023 square kilometres.
After the Fourth Crusade, the conquerors split up the Byzantine Empire. Venice took three eighths of the whole, and Kythira was part of its share. Crusades were holy wars fought by Christian armies in the Middle Ages. Venice placed a coast patrol on Kythira and Antikythera. The patrol guarded its trade route to Constantinople.
In 1799 the Ionian islands became the Septinsular Republic, meaning a state of seven islands. Kythira tours run on one of the islands the British captured in 1809. Britain set up a protectorate, a land run and shielded by a stronger state. It later handed the Ionian Islands, Kythira included, to King George I of Greece.
- Myth: Greek myth tells of Aphrodite rising from sea foam close to the island.
- August: In August, tourists and returning natives can triple the island’s population.
- Language: In certain areas of Kythira, part of the population speaks fluent Italian.
Kythira tours belong to an island that lives largely on tourism. Since the late 20th century, tourism has supplied the majority of its income. Even so, Kythira is not among the leading tourist spots of Greece. Tourism is travel for pleasure.
Which hidden town does Paliochora give Kythira tours?
Kythira tours share the island with Paliochora, a ruined village known in its own day as Agios Dimitrios. About eight hundred people lived there. It was the first large settlement on Kythira since antiquity, the classical world of Greece and Rome.
Steady pirate raids had left Kythira without infrastructure or government until modern times. Infrastructure means basic public works such as roads and ports. Paliochora sat where two canyons fork, a site fit for a stronghold. The stronghold lay well below the surrounding cliffs. Kythira tours belong to an island where this kept the village hidden from passers-by.
Nobody knows exactly when Agios Dimitrios was founded. Accounts date its start to the mid-15th century. The islanders kept the site secret, and its position gave a strong defence against pirates. By the 1530s the village had 800 people, fifteen churches and twenty priests. No town on Kythira has more people even today.
Hayreddin Barbarossa, an Ottoman admiral, sacked the village in 1537. Admiral is the rank of a naval chief who leads a fleet. One account says its highest point showed from the sea, at least 10 km east. Its defences had not been designed against cannons. In the history behind Kythira tours, this fall marks a turning point.
- Refuge: Women, children and the bishop hid in a nearby cave during the attack.
- Secret: Local tales say the attackers never learned where that cave lay.
- Paleopoli: Evidence points to a major settlement at Paleopoli in ancient times.
After the raid, major powers neglected the remote island for centuries. Kythira tours share an island later claimed by France, Russia and Britain in turn. Greece gained it in 1864, ending that chain of claims. A claim here is a demand to rule a place.
What story does Mitata hold for Kythira tours?
Kythira tours belong to an island whose middle holds Mitata, a small village and community. A community here means a small local administrative area. The village stands at an average height of 185 m above sea level. It had 217 residents in 2021.
On Kythira tours, Mitata sits on a cliff side above Viaradika, the next village. The Mitata community also takes in Avlemonas, Agia Moni and Palaiopoli. In the village lies a cave known as Mavri Spilaia, Greek for Black Cave. Caves are natural hollows in rock that people can walk into.
An earthquake near Mitata in 1903 caused significant damage and a limited loss of life. In 2006 another quake shattered the church of Ayia Triadon in the village. After that, the building was unable to host services. Kythira tours run on an island where old buildings in Mitata took the bulk of the 2006 damage.
The 2006 earthquake had a moment magnitude of 6.7. Magnitude is a measure of the energy an earthquake releases. Its epicentre lay off Kythira, 200 km south of Athens. The epicentre is the point on the surface above the start of a quake. After a landslide, part of the central square of Mitata fell into the valley.
- Depth: The 2006 quake started about 55 km below the surface, which kept damage low.
- Reach: People felt the tremor as far away as Bari, Naples, Malta and Cairo.
- Sea: No tsunami, a giant sea wave, followed the 2006 earthquake.
Kythira tours share an island where the 2006 quake reached intensity VII. On the Mercalli scale, that level means very strong. The scale rates how strongly people and buildings feel a quake. On the island of Kythira, one person was injured.
What do travellers ask about Kythira tours, and what are the answers?
Kythira tours happen on an island whose airport stands between Friligiannika and Diakofti. It lies about 20 km from the capital, Chora. Around the turn of the 21st century, local people paid for much of its renewal and extension.
Before Kythira tours, what is known about the Minoan site of Kastri?
Kastri is a village on Kythira that people have lived in since the Bronze Age. Helladic refers to Bronze Age mainland Greece. In the Early Helladic and Minoan periods, Kastri ranked as a key settlement linked with Crete. Kastri lies directly north of ancient Kydonia, a major city of north-western Crete.
On Kythira tours, which famous artworks picture the island?
Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus shows the goddess coming ashore on Kythira or on Cyprus. Venus is the Roman name of Aphrodite. Antoine Watteau painted Embarkation for Cythera, a scene about the island. In 1984 Theo Angelopoulos directed a film called Voyage to Cythera. Cythera is another spelling of Kythira.
Near Kythira tours, how did the island get its ports?
In 1933 the island tried to build a port at the village of Agia Pelagia. Money and government troubles delayed the work for decades. That small port served as the main harbour until the mid-1990s. The newer port went to Diakofti. The British colonial rulers had first picked that site in the 19th century.
Before Kythira tours, which hospital serves the island?
The Trifylleion Hospital is the only hospital on Kythira. Its building was made possible by money from Greek Americans. Mixalis Semitekolos, an emigrant from Kythira, raised funds for it in the United States. He joined a fundraising campaign of Kytherians there in the early 1950s. Kytherians are the people of Kythira.
Featured photo: Comzeradd, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (File:Cythera Capital and the Castle.jpg).