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Amorgos

Amorgos has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as is demonstrated by finds from the Early Cycladic Period. The presence on the island of Cretans of the Minoan period has also been established. At the top of a hill above the southern side of the harbour, at Katapola, the remains of ancient Minoa, said to have been the summer residence of Minos, have been found. There are the sites of two other ancient cities on the island: Arkesine and Aegiale. The island later passed under the rule of the Athenians. It then belonged to the Ptolemies and subsequently the Romans. It fell to other conquerors and finally, in 1209, to the Venetian Marco Sanudo, who incorporated it into the Duchy of Naxos. It took three centuries to be liberated in 1832 and united to Greece from the Turks.

Ruins that are scattered over the island as well as some remarkable finds (some of them now housed in the National Archeological Museum in Athens) signify not only that the island was inhabited in prehistoric times, but that it was at its peak, and of great importance, during the period of the Cycladic civilisation. In antiquity there were three flourishing and independent cities on Amorgos: Minoa, Arkessini and Egiali.

A Venetian castle was built by Ieremias Gizis in the12 century. In Chora you can see the typical Cycladic architectural style of the double church Amorgos. It has two ports, of which, Katapola is the main harbour of the island and the second is Egiali. There is also a Monastery of Panagia Chozoviotissa, one of the most important Byzantine monuments of its kind, which is looking over the Aegean sea for more than 1000 years.

The Hozoviotissa Monastery is not only the most interesting monument on the island, but is one of the finest Monasteries in Greece. It was built around 1017 and renovated in 1088 by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus. It has fine icons and important relics. What makes it so impressive is the position in which it is built. It is perched on a vertical rock, 300 metres above the sea. It has a magnificent view over the open sea.

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