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SPETSES TOWN is the island's port - and its only settlement. It shares with Idhra the same history of late eighteenth-century mercantile adventure and prosperity, and the same leading role in the War of Independence, which made its foremost citizens the aristocrats of the newly independent Greek state. Pebble-mosaic courtyards and streets sprawl between 200-year-old mansions, whose architecture is quite distinct from the Peloponnesian styles across the water. Though homeowners may bring private cars onto the island, their movement inside the town limits is prohibited. A few taxis supplement the horse-drawn buggies, whose bells ring cheerfully night and day along the long waterfront, though animal welfare activists are justifiably worried by the condition of some of the horses by summer's end. Motorbikes, mopeds and noisy three-wheel mini-trucks are the preferred mode of transport, and career continuously through the town streets, making life almost as difficult for pedestrians as if cars had been allowed. The sights are principally the majestic old houses and gardens, the grandest of which is the magnificent Mexis family mansion, built in 1795 and now used as the local museum (Tues-Sun 8.30am-2.15pm; ?1.50), housing displays of relics from the War of Independence that include the bones of the Spetsiot admiral-heroine Laskarina Bouboulina. One of Bouboulina's homes, to the rear of the cannon-studded main harbour known as the Dapia , has been made into a museum (daily morning and late afternoon; ?3) by her descendants and is well worth visiting. Guided tours (30min) are given in English several times a day. Just outside the town, Fowles aficionados will notice Anaryiros Koryalenos College , a curious Greek re-creation of an English public school where the author was employed and set part of his tale; it is now vacant, save for the occasional conference or kids' holiday programme. Like the massive waterfront Hotel Posidonion , where kings and presidents once slept, the college was endowed by Sotirios Anaryiros, the island's great nineteenth-century benefactor. An enormously rich self-made man, he was also responsible for replanting the pine forest that now covers the island. His former residence, behind the Hotel Roumani , is a Pharaonic monument to bad taste. Walking east from the Dapia, you pass the Old Harbour inlet, still a well-protected mooring, and the church of Ayios Nikolaos with its graceful belfry, "Freedom or Death" memorial and some giant pebble mosaics. At the end of the road you reach the Baltiza inlet where, among the sardine-packed yachts, half a dozen boatyards continue to build kaikia in the traditional manner; it was one of these that re-created the Argo for Tim Severin's re-enactment of the "Jason Voyage". An extensive new housing development behind Baltiza will probably edge local prices even higher.
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