Chora – Agios Spyridonas – Perivolia – Agios Prokopios - Pelekania
The first urban image of the island is an area of natural interest and fully integrated into the natural landscape. The traditional settlement of Hora, which protected, is one of the best preserved examples of Cycladic architecture. With very interesting elements such as steigadia (roofed parts of alleyways) and benches (stone benches, we would say today). Monuments of faith and love of the locals to the gleaming white, are the 365 churches scattered throughout the island. Each one with its own personal story and specificity.
On our hiking routes we will come across several small chapels fully integrated into the Cycladic landscape and simultaneously a representative image of it. In the region "Perivolia", you are impressed by the vegetation and the fruit trees, not reminiscent of the Cyclades, but area with abundant water. In this region, there is the church of Agios Prokopios and the landowner (Rania Cave-Mykoniatis), has done an attentive reconstruction of the area, highlighting older structures that existed before, such as the spring, the stone water tanks, and the stone groove that watered the gardens and buildings.
Throughout the island, by having a closer look, you can distinguish old stone buildings, which are "cells", as the locals call the stockyards or the summer derelict houses. Before the motorways were built, the inhabitants, after the end of the winter, moved to their farmhouses, where they spent their summer, engaged in the land and their animals. They sowed, mowed, and pillaged (there are countless half ruined threshing floors) so they can have their own bread. They dug their vineyards and harvest grapes, to have their own wine (there are several crushers and some of them are even sheltered). They nurture their olives to have olive oil and the table olives that accompanied their food. They were grazing their animals and made cheese (There are several stone built dairies, shown the focus which they put the cauldron and stone shelves for maturing of cheeses).
Equally interesting, is the image of the summer residence, with the oven for bread baking, the parostia (the fireplace where they were cooking), the fitted cupboards and the locations of various items. The houses and the sheepfolds, were all roofed and manufactured in the following way: the rafter are put on the bottom, over it a layer of pole, then a layer of bulrush and a layer of seaweeds for the roof insulation (humidity and heat). Finally, it is covered on the top with salt lake ,or if it wasn’t available, they used red dirt. Also the biggest part of the island is cover.