Saint George Beach Naxos
                             

The one and only travel guide to Saint George (Agios Georgios) Beach in Naxos Town, the most famous and most popular resort on the island
Naxos Old Town, the Venetian Castle

Naxos Old Town

The medieval town with the cycladic colour and the Venetian Castle

  • Inside the venetian castle, Old Naxos Town
  • The Venetian Castle
  • Inside the Venetian Castle, Old Naxos Town
  • The Venetian Castle, the north gate
  • Naxos Town Old Market

The Old Town is beautiful with tiny roads, alleys, archways and old houses, in and around the old Venetian Castle.

The Old Town is divided into two neighbourhoods. Brougos where the Greeks lived and the fortified Venetian Castle (or Kastro in Greek) was built under the rule of Marco Sanoudos on the top of a natural hill where the Acropolis of ancient era was. Only two of the seven original seven towers (those of Sanoudo and Glezos families) remain, the North Gate survives and it is an excellent example of medieval fort entrance.

The Venetian Catholic descendants still live in the old mansions which encircle the site. On a square is the Catholic Cathedral (13th century) dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

The Venetian occupation

When Marco Sanudo came to Naxos in 1207, he first captured the island's chief Byzantine castle, T' Apalirou. When Venice refused to grant Sanudo the independent status he desired, he broke away in 1210 and organized most of the archipelago into a Duchy of Naxos with himself, naturally, as the first Duke.

He built a powerful castle in Naxos Town (todays the Venetian Castle in Hora) which was consisting from 7 towers. Only two of the original seven towers (those of Sanudo and Glezos families) remain. The castle today includes a housing complex with the structure of a medieval city, one of the very few preserved in Greece. Venetians Catholic descendants still live in the old mansions which encircle the site.

In order make his fellows to stay in the island, he burned their ships. Sanoudos divided the island into territories and distributed them among his nobles. He and his successors, although ruling with a heavy hand, continued in power until the Turkish take-over in 1564, when the infamous Barbarossa conquered and plundered the island.

One of the very few city castles in Greece where people still live in