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Greece Greece

Administrative Region : Central Greece
Regional unit : Evoia

Skyros (Σκύρος in Greek) is an island in Greece, the southernmost of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC and slightly later, the island was known as The Island of the Magnetes where the Magnetes used to live and later Pelasgia and Dolopia and later Skyros. At 209 km² it is the largest of the Sporades, and has a population of about 3,000 (in 2003). It is part of the peripheral unit of Euboea.

The Hellenic Air Force has a major base in Skyros, because of the island's strategic location in the middle of the Aegean Sea.

Traditional Fashion

Municipality

The municipality Skyros is part of the peripheral unit of Euboea.[1] Apart from the island Skyros it consists of a few uninhabited islands. The total area of the municipality is 223 km².

Geography

The north of the island is covered by forest, and includes Mount Olympus (403 m), while the south, dominated by the highest mountain, called Kochila, (792 m), is bare and rocky. The island's capital is also called Skyros (or, locally, Chora). The main port, on the west coast, is Linaria. The island has a castle (the kastro) that dates from the Venetian occupation (13th to 15th centuries), a Byzantine monastery (the Monastery of Saint George), the grave of English poet Rupert Brooke at Tris Boukes harbor. There are many beaches on the coast. The island has its own breed of Skyrian ponies.

Grave of Rupert Brooke

Skyros Carnival, "Geros" (old man) with skin mask and bells

History
Street in Skyros

According to Greek mythology, Theseus died on Skyros. Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, was from Skyros (or Scyros, as its name is sometimes transliterated), as told in the play by Sophocles, Philoctetes (line 239).

In 475 BC, Cimon defeated the Dolopians and conquered the entire island. From that date, it became a part of the Delian League, later to become the Athenian Empire. Cimon claimed to have found the remains of Theseus, and returned them to Athens.

In 340 BC the Macedonians took over the island and dominated it until 192 BC, when the king Philip and the Roman Republican forces restored it to Athens.

Rupert Brooke, the famous English poet, is buried on Skyros, having died on board a French hospital ship moored off the island in 1915, during World War I.[2]

Historical population
Year Population
1981 2,757
1991 1,806
2001 2,602
2003 3,000

Transportation

Air Travel

Skyros is home to the Skyros Island National Airport, a one-runway airport.

Sea Travel

Skyros Shipping Company operates the ferry service to Skyros. During holiday season the ferry runs twice daily from Kymi to Linaria on Skyros. During the winter months the service operates daily.[3]

Municipality Skyros (Seat: Σκύρος, η)
Aspous (Ασπούς, ο)
Atsitsa (Ατσίτσα, η)
Acherounes (Αχερούνες, οι)
Achilli (Αχίλλι, το)
Exo Podies (Έξω Ποδιές, οι (νησίδα))
Kalamitsa (Καλαμίτσα)
Kalikri (Καλικρί, το)
Κυρά Παναγιά, η
Linaria (Λιναριά, η)
Loutro (Λουτρό, το)
Μελά, η
Mesa Podia (Μέσα Πόδια, τα (νησίδα))
Molos (Μώλος, ο)
Nyfi (Νύφι, το)
Pefkos (Πεύκος, ο)
Σαρακηνό, το (νησίδα)
Skyropoula (Σκυροπούλα, η (νησίδα))
Σκύρος, η
Trachy (Τραχύ, το)

References

^ Kallikratis law Greece Ministry of Interior (Greek)

Skyros

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Municipality Skyros