"My little Kastellorizo, your mountains are high and your houses are low and your waters are cold"
The concentrated wisdom of the traditional song gives the impression of a remote, but beautiful island in just a few verses. Because that is exactly what Kastellorizo is, a "small" island with an area of just 9 sq. km., with mountains of a height disproportionate to its size, with "low" houses, lined up along the coastline, that seem to have just escaped from the pages of some colorful fairy tale, and "cold", crystal clear waters so transparent that you can photograph the sea turtles swimming beneath their surface!
The journey to Kastellorizo has always been an extremely moving experience for me. From 2003 when I first visited it - for business reasons of course - until today, when I have now visited it more than 15 times, the feelings remain exactly the same. You pass Rhodes and continue traveling for about 5 hours with the vast blue sea on your right and the coast of Turkey on your left. You can even watch the cars, which swallow up the kilometers of distance between the coastal towns of the neighbor. And after all these hours, when your phones are connected to Turkish telephone networks, when your televisions only receive Turkish channels and when you generally believe that you started somewhere else and life took you somewhere else, you suddenly find yourself in the arms of Kastellorizo! You are back in your homeland, you step on Greek soil and you realize that this little island "grows" Greece by five hours - to measure it with the unit of measurement that dominates my life, travel hours. The first time I can't hide from you that I was moved to tears, the emotion was so intense! Now it is overcome by the joy of being there again, the almost 20 hours of sea travel are no simple matter!
Kastellorizo joined Greece in 1948, following the fate of the rest of the Dodecanese. The current image of the settlement, as one first sees it, as the ship approaches the port, could well be listed in modern Greek dictionaries, as a synonym for the word picturesque, a characterization that rarely finds its expression in a place as completely as in Kastellorizo. A sense of grandeur and past - but not forgotten - glory, lingers in the atmosphere of the settlement, which tightly embraces the port with its neoclassical two- and three-story mansions gazing at the Aegean and the Mediterranean, but also at the opposite coasts of Asia Minor, where until the beginning of the 20th century many Kastellorizo residents maintained houses and estates. A vivid painting of cubist style, where the strong sunlight brings even more life to the already impressive colors of the mansions, with their large, colorful windows and doors, red tiled roofs and wooden or iron balconies. Wooden staircases, arched entrances and doors decorated with Ionic capitals, Byzantine techniques and “tambades” (geometric patterns), adorn these houses, which are protected by the imposing bulk of the “Mountain”, which stands right behind them. The island became known throughout the world thanks to the filming of the Italian film Mediterraneo, which won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 1991.
The residential area of Kastellorizo consists of the districts of Pigadia, at the port, and Chorafia, around the church of Saints Constantine and Helen, while it continues as far as Mandraki, the picturesque bay to the east with a few houses. On the left edge of the port, on the top of the reddish hill, from which the entire island seems to have taken its name, the fortress of the Knights of St. John, built in the 14th century, on the ruins of an ancient castle, survives. Opinions, however, differ on the name Kastellorizo, as to whether it ultimately comes from Castello Rosso (=Red Castle), due to its red-colored rocks or the color of a coat of arms of the Knights, or again from a composition of the Byzantine words, kastello or kastelli (=castle) and rizovouni, as the foot of the mountain is called, where the settlement is built. The ancient name of the island, Megisti, is also not clear where it comes from. Stefanos Byzantios mentions Megistea as its first settler, while it is possible that it was named so because it is the largest of the surrounding islets or, euphemistically, precisely because of its small size, only 9 sq. km. The Castle was destroyed in 1788 when Lambros Katsonis, with his surprise attack, forced the Turks to flee the island. Parts of the outer wall and three towers are preserved, while next to it are the ruins of a Turkish hammam. The hill that hosts the castle today is bare of houses, while until the devastating bombings of World War I and II, it was one of the most densely populated neighborhoods of the settlement.
Below the fortress, at the entrance to the harbor and carved into a rock, is the perfectly preserved, temple-shaped Lycian tomb, which you will reach if you follow "the katouki", that is, the traditional path, which starts from the harbor. It has a Doric facade and a rectangular chamber with four places for the dead, and similar tombs have been found mainly in Asia Minor Lycia -just opposite Kastellorizo- hence the name Lycian.
Wandering through the cobblestone alleys of the town, both around the port and in the other districts, is a unique experience. In Chorafia, the leading role is played by the Metropolitan Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, built in 1835, while the area is adorned with many other churches, the building of the Santrapia Urban School and the bust of Despina Achladioti, the well-known Lady of Ro.
The Metropolitan Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, the island's patron saints, was built in 1835 on the site of an early Christian basilica. It has Gothic elements and its roof is supported by 12 monolithic granite columns, which were transferred from the temple of Apollo in Patara in Lycia (today it has been converted into the church of Saint Nicholas, where the Patriarch of Constantinople holds a service in his memory every year). It is a church of exceptional art, in the style of a three-aisled basilica with a dome, adorned with rich iconography, a marble iconostasis and a towering marble bell tower. Tradition states that the original temple was built by Constantine the Great, when he was stranded on the island by bad weather, on his way to Palestine, where he was traveling to help Saint Helena find the Holy Cross.
Perhaps the most important attraction of the island is Paleokastro, 2 km. west of the settlement. In Paleokastro, as it is called by the locals, was the old town of the island, fortified since the Hellenistic era or even earlier and on a high point, for security reasons. It has remained unchanged since the Byzantine years since the Knights did not make any intervention here. Large parts of the Hellenistic fortifications and at least three tower-shaped structures have been preserved. Many ancient inscriptions and Neolithic tools have been found in the area. Byzantine, medieval and modern buildings, many cisterns, as well as many churches, are still preserved. In the castle grounds are the Virgin Mary of the Castle and Agios Stefanos with a pebbled floor from 1858 and on the opposite slope the walled church of Agios Panteleimonas and the small church of Agios Georgios “Ftochoulaki”. The view from Paleokastro is panoramic and unobstructed towards the port, the settlement, the surrounding islets and the Asia Minor coasts opposite. Below Paleokastro are the “Aheres” ten tanks for collecting rainwater, built during the Ottoman occupation.
We left for the end of our stay in Kastellorizo, the visit to the "Blue Cave" or "Parastas Cave", on the SE coast of the island. This is perhaps the most beautiful cave in the Mediterranean and one of the rarest geological phenomena. The weather is wonderful and so the boat that transports us enters the cave. We hunched over, upon entering, according to the instructions of our guides, we see a spectacle that cannot be compared to any of the descriptions we have already heard. The light of the morning sun - an ideal time to visit the cave - creates dreamlike reflections of all shades of blue and azure on the crystalline surface of the water, creating a magical and eerie atmosphere, accompanied by countless stalagmite and stalactite formations. The dive of a young seal, which disappeared underwater - the cave is also called Fokiali because of these very cute inhabitants - brought us back to reality, making us envy this innocent creature, which has the opportunity to see this divine beauty every day!
The appropriately designed bastion of the castle houses the Archaeological and Folklore Museum of the island, which hosts Hellenistic and Roman reliefs, statues - such as the headless marble statue of Hygieia from the 3rd century BC -, Byzantine paintings and coins, frescoes - such as those from the 17th century from the two-substance church of Saints Demetrius and Nicholas -, seals of the elderly, porcelain, embroidery, gold-decorated jugs, etc. Particularly important is the masterful bronze statuette of Bacchus, as well as the crystal lighthouse, French-made in 1913. The folklore section exhibits: sponge fishermen's equipment, hand mills, amphorae and architectural elements from the early Christian basilica, which stood on the site of the Metropolitan Church of Saints Constantine and Helen.
Kastellorizo flavors
In the taverns of the island, look for recipes with fish and seafood, as you should do on any Greek island you find yourself on. But also try giouvarlakia or chickpea meatballs as well as the original "salantourmasi" which is essentially onion stuffed with minced meat and rice. For sweets, ask for the halva tou tsoualiou, but also the "strava", a type of fried baklava, filled with walnuts, herbs and "pieced" sugar (a mixture of sugar and egg whites, which after drying is broken into small pieces). If you find yourself in Kastellorizo during Holy Week, you will also try the lazarakia, which are made on Lazarus Saturday and eaten until Easter, because they are fasting days.
The neighboring island of Ro
The monument to the Lady of Ro, Despina Achladioti, who lived on the island all alone, making the daily raising of the Greek flag her life's purpose, will remind the centuries of the greatness of this woman. On the island there is also the chapel of Agios Georgios and a small, ancient tower.
The islet of Agios Georgios
The small church of the same name is located here and the people of Kastellorizo visit it - weather permitting - on May Day and Clean Monday.
A drop of history
The island has been inhabited since the Neolithic period, according to the findings, while the Mycenaeans also arrived here, as evidenced by a wonderful gold wreath found in a sarcophagus and exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Athens. During the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods, Megisti belonged to the Municipalities of Perea, had its own coins, but was economically dependent on Rhodes, a dependency that was abolished in the early 3rd century BC by the tyrant of Halicarnassus, Idrieus. It then came under the control of Alexander the Great and his descendants, while in the 2nd century BC the island acquired relative autonomy for a period, which was abolished by Vespasian in 38 BC. During the Byzantine period, Kastellorizo initially belonged to the so-called Province of the Islands and later to the Naval Theme of Karavos. In 1306 it was captured by the Knights of St. John, who immediately rebuilt the Red Castle, which was to become the most characteristic feature of the island. From 1440 until the Revolution of 1821, the island was successively claimed by the Egyptians, Catalans, Neapolitans, Turks, Spaniards, Venetians and Russians, who alternated several times in the power of Kastellorizo, a fact that clearly demonstrates its extremely important, strategic position.
Despite the successive raids and the significant population decline, Kastellorizo developed, its inhabitants turned to the shipping and trade sectors and the island achieved great, for the time, economic and cultural prosperity. The people of Kastellorizo joined the revolution immediately after its outbreak, transforming their merchant fleet into a warship, despite all this they waited until 1913 to declare their union with Greece, a move that was not accepted by Eleftherios Venizelos. From 1915 to 1921, the island experienced the rule of the French, who transferred it to the Italians, a fact that marked the mass migration of its inhabitants to Rhodes, Piraeus, but also to Australia, America and Egypt. During World War II, it served as an Allied base and in 1943 suffered heavy German air raids, which almost completely destroyed it and forced most of its inhabitants to abandon it forever. Today, fewer than 300 people live on the island.
