A spark, a flame ignites in the heart.

A true queen of the Aegean, built amphitheatrically on the hills, Ermoupoli immediately captivates with its impressive architecture. A masterful combination of old and new, classic and modern, Orthodox and Catholic. The two graceful hills with their two heterodox churches at the top bear witness to the island’s dual cultural identity. Ano Syra, dominating the highest hill, is crowned by the Catholic bishopric of St. George, untouched by the passage of time. You lose yourself in its Aegean architecture, among the narrow streets, low-roofed houses, and countless steps.

During the years of the Revolution, persecuted people from Kydonia, Chios, and Psara came to Syra or Syros to find refuge. And they founded a new city from scratch. The name of the city was decided at a council meeting held in 1826 by the city’s first settlers. It was named Ermoupoli in honor of Hermes, the god of commerce, reflecting the occupations of its inhabitants, their dynamism, and their ingenuity. Between 1840 and 1880, Ermoupoli grew rapidly, developing into an important commercial center in the Mediterranean and becoming a cosmopolitan city with a developed urban class. Ermoupoli was the hub for trade with the rest of Greece, Russia, and the East. It grew so much that in 1856 it was the second most populous city after Athens. Ermoupoli began to decline after 1880 with the primacy of the port of Piraeus, when the bulk of trade began to be conducted from there. After the Asia Minor Catastrophe, 7,800 refugees from Asia Minor arrived on the island, most of them from Smyrna. The decline began when Syros missed the great opportunity to switch from sailing ships to coastal shipping. And it was a road of no return. The bombings and famine of World War II contributed to the total decline of the island.

As Ermoupoli was established from the outset as a result of the mass influx of refugees persecuted by the Turks, this mixture of disparate elements led to the creation of an island state with a unique character, cosmopolitan features, and high aesthetics. Customs house, warehouses, shipyard, and shipyard on one side, and on the other, magnificent public buildings, imposing temples, and multi-story neoclassical buildings. The past mixes with the present, and both unfold before us.

The Industrial Museum of Ermoupoli

The industrial development of Syros in previous centuries was pioneering, worthy of a large city. Evidence of its glorious past can be found everywhere. However, the Industrial Museum in Ermoupoli reveals the most significant and fully documented evidence. Achilles Dimitropoulos, the museum’s curator, gave us a tour of the Industrial Museum and introduced us to its secrets, revealing the unknown but rich industrial past of Syros and Ermoupoli in particular.

The Industrial Museum is housed in three old factories opposite the hospital. Its halls house more than 300 rare examples of the evolutionary course followed by the city’s prosperity, aesthetic development, and productive activity. In this sense, we could say that the Industrial Museum is “the museum of the city,” “the museum of Ermoupoli.” The museum is divided into five sections, each of which includes exhibits and historical evidence from the development of a different sector: the early stages, trade, maritime arts, the Neorio, and industry itself (ironworking, engineering, tanning, and textiles). Also on display are the original designs by Ziller for the town hall of Hermoupolis and by Italian architect Pietro Sampò for the Apollon Theater. The “Opening to the World” trade hall features the exhibition “Neotismos Store” by Dimitris Charalambidis (1890-1940), where imported goods were sold. The museum’s most important exhibit is the first Greek electric car, the Enfield 8000, which was manufactured in Syros in the 1970s.

The museum’s top exhibit is the first Greek electric car, the Enfield 8000, which was manufactured in Syros in the 1970s. Specifically, the first vehicle of this type was manufactured in October 1973 at the shipyard’s facilities, following an order from the British Electric Company. In 1971, the English company Enfield moved its headquarters to the Isle of Wight and managed to secure a major contract for the production of 123 electric cars, beating out competing bids from Ford and Leyland. Shortly before production began, the visionary Yannis Goulandris, shipowner and owner of the company, decided to move the production line to Syros, near the shipyard facilities he owned. A total of about 123 cars were manufactured, and production in Syros continued until the end of 1975.

Textile Museum of Ermoupoli

A highlight for us was visiting the former Zisimatos textile factory, which has now been converted into a cultural heritage museum. What is amazing is that it has been preserved almost intact, with all its equipment, like a ghost of the past. Time in the old factory seems to have stopped on the night the switch was turned off. We observed with a sense of bitter disappointment the industrial development of Ermoupoli and, by extension, Greece, and its gradual decline until its final dissolution. Until the end of the 1970s, the Zisimatos company operated normally and was profitable. However, with Greece’s accession to the EEC, domestic industry suffered the consequences of competition.

At the entrance, the amazing tour guide staged the experience she was about to offer us: she welcomed us wearing the workers’ smock and hairnet and led us through the old factory. It was shocking to relive the moment when the decision to permanently close the factory was made, during a shift, following a telephone order. The looms, knitting machines, and dye vats remained in place as if they were going to be used again the next morning.

This is the vision of Dimitris Stavrakopoulos, who has been collecting objects from the past for a long time and has been looking for a place to house them. And he found the place. It is the old textile factory. He declares himself a lover of tradition, has a restless spirit and a passionate curiosity about things. Insisting on preserving authenticity, he directs a journey through time. This explains the establishment of the non-profit organization Hermoupolis Heritage, which organizes experiential activities with the aim of promoting cultural heritage.

Hiking trail among the blue rocks

On Sunday, together with the Syros Hiking Group, we started from the entrance of the village of Kampos and followed the route Trochos, Grizas spring, Grizas beach, Stefani, and back to Kampos. This active group of hikers organizes walking routes every Sunday at 9 a.m., all with their “leader” and “sweeper.” The reason we chose to follow them, apart from their cheerful company, was geological. We had information about the blue rocks and azure stones along the route and wanted to capture them on camera and on paper.

Below is a specialized scientific article by geologist Dimitrios Kostopoulos about these rocks.

Syros: A geological journey through space and time
The beginning – Rocks of striking beauty

About 180 years ago, in 1845, German geologist Hofrath Hausmann discovered a mineral on Syros with a striking blue color, which he named glauconite (from “glaucos” meaning blue/cyan). Since then, the fissured rocks of the island that contained glauconite have been called cyanite. The first thorough study of the cyanite of Syros was presented by the German geologist Otto Luedecke in 1876. In Syros and its geologically similar sister island, Sifnos, along with cyanite, there are also other rocks with minerals in deep red (garnet) and emerald green (omphacite) colors, which were named elegites because of their exquisite beauty. The term “eclogite” was coined by the French mineralogist René-Just Haüy (1743–1822), who was deeply impressed by the beauty of these rocks when he observed them in the Saualpe region of Austria. The term appeared in literature for the first time in 1822 in Haüy’s book “Traité de minéralogie.” The first “scientific” description of eclogite, however, dates back to the second half of the 18th century, when Swiss geologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1740-1799) mentioned a “beautiful rock that has not yet been described” in the form of pebbles in the Rhone Valley near Geneva in his work “Voyages dans les Alpes.” In 1878, German geologist Ernst Riehard Riess published the first extensive research on the mineralogical composition of eclogites with frequent references to Syros. The most detailed geological map of Syros to date was compiled in 2011 by German geologists Mark Keiter, Chris Ballhaus, and Frank Tomaschek and published together with an accompanying explanatory paper in a special volume of the Geological Society of America (Geological Society of America, Special Paper 481).

Garnet and omphacite

The two most important and visually striking minerals of the garnet group, garnet and omphacite, are semi-precious stones. Garnet owes its name to its deep red color (grenat), which resembles that of the pomegranate, known in Latin as malum granatum. The other mineral, omphacite, owes its name to its green color, which resembles that of unripe grapes, called omphax in ancient Greek. A variation of omphacite called iaideitis (jade) is a beloved gemstone/talisman.

Both the cyanite and the eclogites of Syros and Sifnos were created in the middle of an ocean 80 million years ago, but they did not look the way they do today. They acquired their unique beauty in colors and minerals after first traveling 80 kilometers deep into the earth, were “transformed” by the high temperatures and pressures that prevailed there, and then emerged to the surface through complex geological processes.

The ‘queens’ of global geology

Nowadays, Syros and Sifnos are considered the most representative locations of blue schist and elegites in the world. Both islands, in their entirety, are geological museums, the likes of which are hard to find. Every year, universities from all corners of the earth organize geological educational excursions there, and the results of their studies are published in prestigious international scientific journals. Syros and Sifnos constitute a global geological heritage that we must all preserve and promote. We can do this better if we understand their significance for us, knowing where and how they were created and the journey they have taken through space and time.

Hiking trail to the chapel of Saint Stephen

Almost inaccessible, hidden, tiny, invisible. These adjectives describe the chapel of Saint Stephen, tucked away in a remote cave near Galissas. Access to it requires the right information. This is because you get there by following an easy, marked hiking trail 15 minutes from Galissas or by boat, as a small pier has been built. It is a small Catholic chapel, a whitewashed touch on the rocky landscape, opening onto the blue of the Cyclades. It has neither a ceiling nor a floor, as it is wedged into the rock. Twice a year, on August 19 and December 27, the chapel celebrates and welcomes revelers with mastic and Syrian loukoumi.

Galissas and Agia Pakou

Agia Pakou stands atop the hill of Galissas. It is a picturesque little Catholic church, painted in the colors of the sky and the sea, white and blue, with a magnificent view of the Aegean, which you reach by climbing quite a few steps. From there, you can see the small harbor with its boats, the stone pier with palm trees, and the endless beauty of the landscape. Ancient Galissos was a fortified city around the hill of Agia Pakou, one of the most important archaic and classical centers of ancient Syros. An ancient inscription mentions “Prianeus Syros Galissios,” which proves the historicity of the place name.

Hiking trail in Viglostasi

The road to Viglostasi showcases the wild beauty of the Cyclades. Bare rocks, dizzying cliffs, stone walls and dry stone fences, windswept places, carved by the meltemi winds, barren land. Viglostasi is a rocky slope at the southernmost tip of Syros, ending at the lighthouse. From Agathopes, you can already admire and take photos with the impressive Viglostasi lighthouse in the background. The trail starts at the end of Komito beach and begins to climb. It is very clear along its entire length, with no significant differences in altitude. After climbing for about 1.5 km, continue for another 500 meters and after 30-40 minutes of walking you will reach the lighthouse. The view from there is breathtaking, as you can see Kythnos, Serifos, and Sifnos to the right, and Antiparos and Paros to the southeast.

After so much walking, we needed to rest somewhere. And we found the perfect place. The Xenon Apollonos in the Vaporia area of Ermoupoli, on Apollonos Street, a street known for its neoclassical mansions, truly enchanted us. It is a historic building that once hosted Otto and later Eleftherios Venizelos, impeccably restored and magically furnished. We have nothing but gratitude to Giorgos Stathopoulos for his warm hospitality.

As guests of Katerina Papoutsi, we couldn’t help but have a wonderful time. Her neoclassical house in Ermoupoli—you’ll find it listed as NeoClassical House in Ermoupoli on the vrbo platform—became our home. Very close to the central square, with a large terrace offering wonderful views not only of the city but also of the surrounding islands, Tinos and Mykonos. It was so big that we could play hide and seek in the high-ceilinged rooms, each with its own unique style that blends urban and island influences. From the living room balcony, we said goodbye to the island with the hope of returning, savoring the taste of Syrian loukoumia and halvadopita on our lips.