Chalandriani

Apano Meria is located 11 km / 6.8 mi away from Ermoupoli, the capital of the island. It is fairly easy to approach it through the country road which connects Ermoupoli to Ano Syros and then by continuing towards Apano Meria.

There is also a regular bus service.

Several remote beach spots (Grammata, Varvaroussa, Aetos and Lia) can be reached by boat service from the port of Kini.

Apano Meria literally translates to Upper Part and that because it is located on the northern tip of the island. Its mountainous terrain is rough and somehow not very easy to approach, yet it is very beautiful.

• ANCIENT TIMES

Almost all the archaeological treasures of Syros were found in Apano Meria. It is one of the most important sites of the Cycladic Civilization of the 3rd millenium BC. The first populations which settled on the island were the Carians, the Leleges and the Phoenicians, all coming from Asia Minor and traveling in the Aegean Sea. It is a time of great historical transitions and this part of Syros contributes significantly to the development of the Aegean. Better social structures are implemented and there is a great technological, cultural and artistic development. Commerce, fishing and agriculture are better organized. Many elaborate vessels (marble kraters, clay pots, sauce boats and kernoi) and everyday use objects of all shapes and purposes prove a large scale export activity.

In 1898, archaeologist Chr. Tsountas has discovered the traces of a cemetery belonging to two ancient settlements of the early Bronze Age. The excavations also revealed parts of a fortification of the same historical age, the remains of walls and buildings, ostraka, inscriptions, weapons, tools and statuettes with represent women in pregnancy and many elaborately decorated clay pots. Many of the archaeological discoveries of Syros are displayed in the National Archaeological museum of Athens and in the Syros Museum in Ermoupoli. Copies of those exhibits are found in the Museum of Cycladic Art Replicas, also in Ermoupoli.

The Thera Eruption and the subsequent devastating earthquake and tsunami resulted in the collapse of the late Minoan civilization. The area was almost totally abandoned, used only occasionally for cultivation, while the remaining residents were mainly farmers and beekeepers.

• MODERN HISTORY

The villages that we see today were built after the Greek War of Independence and while piracy was extinct from the Aegean. The area is repopulated and people here take up farming and agriculture.

• ARCHITECTURE

The area has a color of its own. Its dry and rocky landscape is terraced so as to keep the soil together for cultivation. A view of the slopes reveals little chapels, wells and threshing floors. The houses were built to serve the specific needs of this land and its people. They are usually shaped as an L. The living room is on the front and the bedroom further back while right in the angle there is a courtyard covered by a shading reed mat. Most houses are traditionally built of mud and stone and they have pergolas. Often, the interior of their walls are workmanly decorated.