|
SYMI , the island's capital and only proper town, consists of Yialos , the excellent natural port, and Horio , on the hillside above. Incredibly, less than a hundred years ago the place was richer and more populous (25,000) than Rodhos Town, its wealth generated by shipbuilding and sponge-diving, skills nurtured since pre-Classical times. Under the Ottomans, Symi, like most of the smaller Dodecanese, enjoyed considerable autonomy in exchange for a yearly tribute in sponges to the sultan; but the Italian-imposed frontier, the 1919-22 Greco-Turkish war, the advent of synthetic sponges and the gradual replacement of the crews by Kalymniots spelt doom for the local economy. Vestiges of past nautical glories remain in still-active boatyards at Pedhi and Harani, but today the souvenir-shop sponges come entirely from overseas and, the recent boom notwithstanding, a significant fraction of the magnificent nineteenth-century mansions stands roofless and empty. The approximately twenty-five hundred remaining Symiots are scattered fairly evenly throughout the mixture of Neoclassical and more typical island dwellings; despite the surplus of properties, many outsiders have preferred to build anew, rather than restore derelict shells accessible only by donkey or on foot. As on Kastellorizo, a wartime ammunition blast - this time set off by the retreating Germans - levelled hundreds of houses up in Horio. Shortly afterwards, the official Axis surrender of the Dodecanese to the Allies was signed here on May 8, 1945: a plaque marks the spot at the present-day Restaurant Les Catherinettes . At the lively port , an architecturally protected area since the early 1970s, spice and sponge stalls plus a few jewellery shops throng with Rhodes-based trippers between 11am and 3.30pm, and the several excursion craft disgorging them envelop the quay with exhaust fumes. But just uphill, away from the water, the more peaceful pace of village life takes over, with livestock and chickens roaming free-range. Two massive stair-paths, the Kali Strata and Katarraktes, effectively deter many of the day-trippers and are most dramatic towards sunset; large, owl-haunted ruins along the lower reaches of the Kali Strata are lonely and sinister after dark, though these too are now scheduled for restoration. A series of blue arrows through Horio leads to the excellent local museum (Tues-Sun 10am-2pm; ?1.50). Housed in a fine old mansion at the back of the village, the collection concentrates on Byzantine and medieval Symi, with exhibits on frescoes in isolated, locked churches and a gallery of medieval icons, as well as antiquarian maps and the inevitable ethnographic wing. The nearby Hatziagapitos mansion has been refurbished as an annexe; here, wonderful carved wooden chests are the main exhibits, along with fragmentary wall-paintings. On the way back to central Horio, the nineteenth-century pharmacy, with its apothecary jars and wooden drawers labelled for exotic herbal remedies, is worth a look. At the very pinnacle of things, a Knights' castle occupies the site of Symi's ancient acropolis, and you can glimpse a stretch of Classical polygonal wall on one side. A dozen churches grace Horio; that of the Assumption, inside the fortifications, is a replacement of the one blown to bits when the Germans detonated the munitions cached there. One of the bells in the new belfry is the nose-cone of a thousand-pound bomb, hung as a memorial.
Your Tip for Symi Town
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Symi Town - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Symi Town - visit the main Symi Town forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Symi Town webguide section below! Thanks.
|
