Portara Naxos

The Portara, the undisputed symbol that represents Naxos and that will surely be in the collection of photographs if for your holidays in Greece you have chosen this Cycladic island, we find it on the Palatia Peninsula right in front of the capital.

Let's start by giving you some information on the islet of Palatia, the place of a mythological episode known to all from which the famous saying "planting ace" derives. It is said that the small rock formation is the exact point where Theseus on the return from Crete after killing the terrible Minotaur, leaves Ariadne, daughter of Minos, who helped him with the famous thread to get out of the labyrinth. Ariadne escapes with Theseus from Crete in the hope of soon becoming his bride. On the way back, they stop for one night in Naxos in the Peninsula of Palatia but upon her awakening Ariadne finds herself alone because Theseus panicked for the wedding leaves her and hence the famous phrase. Another version instead tells that Dionysus the God of the Naxos island, seeing Arianna fell in love with her and, during the night, kidnapped her and later married her.

The Portara shows itself to modern eyes as a majestic marble door extracted from the Flerio quarry which is located in the Naxos hinterland  with a height of six meters and a width of almost four with two trunks weighing twenty tons each and an architrave also very heavy. From the remaining foundations, we understand the size of the temple which was to be 50x25 meters closed in an Ionic colonnade of six columns on the shorter side and twelve on the longer side.

Strongly wanted by the tyrant Lygdamis and started in 530 BC it had to be the most imposing in Greece to give magnificence and power to the island, but Lygdamis, during the clashes with the Spartans, was defeated and the temple never finished. He also experienced other moments when, for example, in the Middle Ages it was transformed into a Christian basilica and then from the 5th to the 6th century AD it was partly dismantled except for the remains that are seen today for the simple reason of the heaviness and the impossibility of transportation , using marble especially during the Venetian and Turkish domination to build the beautiful buildings that can be admired around the island and the Chora castle. At one time, it was a simple strip of land that connected the north side of the port to the Palatia islet.

The Temple was believed to have been built in honor of Apollo given that Portara is facing the Delos island, which according to Greek mythology is the island where God was born. Other theories instead assume that it was built for Dionysus on God of wine who grew up in Naxos making it fertile, prosperous and becoming its protector.

One of the most beautiful experiences to note about things to do in Naxos is certainly to contemplate the sunset from Portara where everything becomes magical between the colors of the sky and the colors of the sea.

Nothing could be easier or more pleasant. With a magnificent walk from the seafront of Naxos along a road that crosses the waters, the only access route for a jump into the past and history of this magnificent and always surprising island.