Más Travel: Pyrgos, Santorini

Pyrgos, Santorini Greece

Pyrgos is one of the largest villages on the island and is considered the center of marble art in Tinos. Birthplace of remarkable master sculptors such as Halepas, Sochos, and Filippotis, as well as painters like Lytras and Gyzis, this village is essentially an open-air marble sculpture museum. All around it, the impressive natural scenery is made up of rocky hills and narrow strips of fertile land. Within the village, whitewashed houses and simple mansions form an architectural ensemble of unique Cycladic beauty, decorated with marble lintels, coats of arms, and inscriptions. The central square lies in the shade of an age-old plane tree and enjoys the coolness of a spring built in 1784. Marble is everywhere: on arches, on columns, on the signs above the fountains, and on the icon screens of the churches. Visit the cemetery, which rivals any sculpture gallery. There you can admire stunning tomb reliefs and busts, as well as the houses of Giannoulis Halepas and Nikiforos Lytras, now turned into museums, the museum of artists from Panormos, and the Museum of Marble Art. In the latter, multimedia material and displays of marble quarries and workshops introduce you to the traditional techniques used to turn marble slabs into works of art. If you don’t feel like visiting a museum, you can still watch marble craftsmen at work by stopping by a workshop in the village’s streets.

Recommended airport

Santorini (JTR)

Nearby destinations

Pyrgos, Santorini, Greece

Pyrgos, Santorini Greece