Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The west
The shape of Astypálea is often compared to a butterfly, in that it consists of two
separate “wings” joined by a low narrow isthmus. The only major population centre,
made up of the built-up strip that joins the waterfront villages of
Péra Yialós
and
Livádhia
by way of hilltop
Hóra
, is on the southeast coast of its
western
half, well away
from both the ferry port and the airport.
Péra Yialós
Astypálea was the first Dodecanese island occupied by the Italians, and the little harbour
town of
PÉRA YIALÓS
, also known as
SKÁLA
, dates from the Italian era. Set in a deeply
indented, steep-sided little bay, it's not where most inter-island ferries arrive (see opposite).
Only at the head of the harbour, where a broadish gravel beach - fine for families with
young children - fronts a row of seafront cafés and restaurants, is there much life or
activity. A broad and uninteresting concrete quayside stretches along its southern shore,
below Hóra, while the hillsides are dotted with houses and the odd small hotel.
Archeological museum
June-Sept Tues-Sun 9am-1pm & 6-8.30pm; Oct-May Tues-Sun 8.30am-2.30pm • Free
Just back from the waterfront in the centre of Péra Yialós, the local
archeological
museum
consists of a single room. Many of its local finds, spanning the Bronze Age to
medieval times, are little more than fragments, but it does hold impressive goblets and
vases unearthed from two Mycenaean tombs.
8
Hóra
The delightful, very photogenic ensemble of
HÓRA
, accessible by road as well as steep
stair-paths from Péra Yialós, neatly caps a high headland. Beneath the grey walls of the
hilltop castle, the village itself is comprised of dazzling bright houses - many restored as
holiday homes - threaded along intriguing narrow alleyways. The main approach road
is lined with eight picturesque orange-roofed
windmills
.
Kástro
Unrestricted access • Free
Astypálea's thirteenth-century
kástro
, among the finest in the Aegean, was erected not
by the Knights of St John, but by the Venetian Quirini clan, and modified by the
Ottomans after 1537. Rather than purpose-built battlements, its unique “walls”
consisted instead of the stacked-up frontages of private houses. Until well into the
twentieth century more than three hundred people lived inside, but depopulation and
a severe 1956 earthquake combined to leave only a shell. Reached via a brightly
whitewashed passageway beneath its main church of
Evangelístria Kastrianí
, the interior
has been laid out with new pathways.
Livádhia
The little resort village of
LIVÁDHIA
occupies the next bay along from Hóra. A long,
straight and pleasant
beach
, albeit scruffy with dried vegetation, lines the waterfront,
fringed by cafés, restaurants and low-key hotels. You can walk there from Hóra in
fifteen minutes; be sure to take the road that drops down to the sea just beyond the
Pylaia Boutique Hotel (see p.572). If you simply go down to the beach you won't
realize quite how far this fertile valley stretches inland.
Beyond Livádhia
When the beach at Livádhia is too busy, press on southwest for fifteen minutes on foot
to reach the three small fine-pebble coves at
Tzanáki
. Beyond these,
Papoú
is an 80m
fine-gravel strand accessible overland by a horrifically steep side track, and then a final
path approach around a fenced-off farm.
