Discovering the history of the beautiful island’s trademark

The Portara, is the large marble gate on the islet of Palatia adjacent to the island of Naxos and facing the main town - Chora - and signifies the ruins of the Temple of Apollo whose construction begun on the 6^th – 7^th century BC and was never completed.

The gate of Portara captivates our sight as soon as we enter Naxos port and constitutes the island’s trademark. It is on this little islet, that - according to mythology - Thisseas abandoned Ariadne who he had taken together with him leaving Crete, after having killed Minotaur.

In essence, the ruins that we see nowadays, is the gate of the temple whose construction had commenced by oppressor Ligdamis who wanted to present something more elaborate than the Temple of Zeus in Athens and the Temple of goddess Hera in Samos island.

After the fall of tyranny, the construction of the temple in Naxos was left unfinished and all we see today around the gate are the foundations. The gate is made of four large pieces of local marble weighing 20 tones each, it has a height of 6 meters and a width of more than 3.5 meters.

During the 5^th and 6^th century AD, the ancient temple was converted to a Christian one and was used, as such, up to the Venetian occupation of the island during which it was utterly destroyed and the marbles were used by the Venetians for the construction of other buildings, such as the Castle of Chora. Apart from its trademark, Naxos island has dozens of interesting sites and beauties to share with its visitors.

Discover them all by staying at the brand new Cycladic treasure named Corona Borealis for which you can acquire further information by pressing here.

For reservations please dial : 0030 210 8981884

From: Eleni Nikoloulia

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