Page 98 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Greek Islands

Spétses, Póros
Metohi Cape
5 Zoúrva
ÝDRA STAY Ýdra Mandraki Geníseos tis
Town
Theotókou Monastery
Vlyhós
ΎΔΡΑ Orloff Boutique Hotel Dokos Plákes Vlyhoú Kamíni Moni Ágiou Limnioniza Ýd ra
Nikólaos
Beach
Agía
A restored 1796 mansion Palamidas Evpraxía Profítis Ilías
g Ýdra town n hydraislandgreece.com painted ceilings. Each of Petasi Kivotos Molos Eros
with original floors and
EXPERIENCE The Argo-Saronic Islands in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, boosted Cotommatae 1810 Bísti Ágios Nikólaos 0 kilometres 3 3 N
A long, narrow mass of mostly barren rock, Ýdra was
590 m (1,936 ft)
the ten rooms is unique.
settled by Orthodox Albanians in the 16th century.
⌂ Rafaliá 9,
Ýdra town was built during a brief period of prosperity
Episkopí
Platía Nikoláou Vótsi
∑ orloff.gr
by blockade-running dur ing the Napoleonic Wars.
¡¡¡
Following Greece's indepen dence, Ýdra lapsed into
0 miles
obscurity, until foreigners "discovered" it after World
War II. By the 1960s, the trickle had become a flood of
Expect contemporary
outsiders who restored the old houses, trans forming
comforts in this
Ýdra into one of the most exclu sive resorts around.
converted old mansion.
Thick stone walls in the
1
things cool in summer.
church, built between 1760
Ýdra Town quay towers Panagía monastic ground-floor suites keep
and 1770 using masonry from
⌂ Off Platía Nikolá Vótsi
Ýdra is charming, the result of Póros’s Temple of Poseidon ∑ cotommatae.gr
an architectural preservation (p97). The marble belfry was ¡¡¡
order – along with a ban on reput edly erected by a master
motor vehicles – that has kept mason from Tínos island. The Phaedra Hotel
the town’s appearance as it Tombázi Mansion, a walk up
was two centuries ago. The the western hillside, hosts a In a secluded spot, with
striking mountain
dozen or so surviving three- School of Fine Arts, while the views from a shared
or four-storey arhondiká nearby Lazaros Koundouriotis terrace, the Phaedra
(mansions) around the port, Mansion contains an excellent is open all year.
built between 1780 and 1820, ethnographic museum and
are particularly lovely. art gallery. An hour’s steep ⌂ Lane in
On the eastern quay, the climb above the town, Agía Kofítsa district
Historic Archives and Museum Evpraxía is a convent whose ∑ phaedrahotel.com
of Ýdra displays costumes, old nuns carry out silkwork. There ¡¡¡
engravings and memorabilia is an adjacent monastery, and
of the Independence War. Just each has spectacular views.
behind the marble-paved Both buildings shut at midday.

Picturesque houses in
Ýdra town, built into the
hillside overlooking the sea
98

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