Chios Town
Photo Gallery
Situated on the east coast of the island, Chios Town is nowadays the capital of Chios Island and its administrative, economical, commercial and cultural centre. It's inhabitants are mainly engaged in seafaring (the town it's the home of a great number of shipping magnates), trade and touristical activities.
The heart of the town is the harbour, especially during the evening, when huge ferries from Piraeus reach Chios island. A crowd of people from everywhere come here and the arrivals are social events for the Chios's residents. Especially, before Easter, come here lots of tourists from Greece and from abroad, only for see a bizzare Chios's Easter tradition: every Easter Sunday two Orthodox churches in the town of Vrontados fire rockets at each other's churches. The objective is to hit the other church's bell. This year they used 70,000 rockets. It's a crazy tradition!
In Chios Island there are very big differences between the architectural style of the buildings. We can notice western influences and Ottoman decorative influences. We can see lots of buildings reflecting prestige. Trade, mastic and light industry guaranteed everyone the comfort of life, even during the Turkish rule, and the island experienced economic and cultural prosperity.
Here is the famous Korais Library. The visitor can discover numerous large churches, neoclassical houses, monuments and archaeological sites: the fortress of Chios (built at the medieval times and used like administrative centre during the Genoese and Ottoman period), the Gioustiniani Museum (with a post-byzantine icon collection), the Archaeological Museum (with fabulous collections of prehistorical, classical Greek and Roman periods), Homer Cultural Centre (where congresses and councils are held and also cultural events, for example theatrical performances), the Church Saint George, the Mosque, the big Watch Tower, the Byzantine Fountain, the Ottoman Baths, the Municipal Gallery, the Byzantine Museum (housed in a 19th century Mosque), the Cathedral, the Catholic Church of Saint Nicholas, Argentis Ethnological and Folklore Museum, the Maritime Museum, the Aegean University.
The Public Garden lays in the main square of Chios Town, Plateia Vounakiou. It is filled with trees, flowers and shrubs, some sculptures and an outdoor cinema, used in the summer. Around there are lots of streets with all kinds of shops, cafeterias, bars.
Chios has an intense night-life, especially in Chios Town and Karfas. Chios Town is full of bars and night-clubs, open all the night, with all kinds of music and atmosphere. Some tavernas organise Greek Nights with live Greek music.
There are lots and lots of tavernas, restaurants with Greek specialities (fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh fish and beef, pork, lamb, goat and local sausages) but several Italian restaurants, a Chinese Restaurant with 82 dishes prepared by their very own professional Chinese cook, a Mexican restaurant, too. If you are in Chios don't forget to taste "spoon sweets" (made of preserved oranges, eggplant, cherries, grapes), sweet pies, almond cakes, various sweet drinks. They are very tasty!