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Cruising into the Naxos harbor, you don’t have to go very far to see a piece of Greek history and architecture.
Greeting visitors to its island, is the Portara, the portal to the temple of Apollo, standing on the islet of Palatia.
The temple’s construction was started around 530 BC, when Lygdamis, the tyrant of Naxos, made the decision to build the highest and most magnificent building in all of Greece devoted to the honor of Apollo, the Greek God and protector of music and poets. After war broke out, work was halted and never completed.
After the temple’s marble was harvested for the Castle of Naxos, the doorway was deemed too heavy to dismantle and relocate, leaving a prodigious example of early Greek architecture to be studied and enjoyed by both visitors and locals for thousands of years to come.
Though we had spied the beautiful doorway as our ferry sailed into port, it wasn’t until our last day in Naxos that we finally made the walk across the causeway that connects the islet to Naxos.
Making our way up the steep path, we were eager to reach the pinnacle, but it was also essential to stop and enjoy the views of the blue Naxian waters, nearby Paros and the Naxian coastline in the distance.
As we made the summit, the remains of the temple spread out all around us with the Portara in the centrum. Staring through this vestibule at the white-washed city beyond it, I wondered if we should have come here during the evenings when we spied large numbers of visitors holding court awaiting the setting sun’s final descent beyond the island of Paros.
Yes, I think we should have.
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Portara Gate/Temple of Apollo
- Address: Naxos 843 00, Greece
- Hours: 24 hours, daily
- Admission: free