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Syros

"Keros-Syros" is from around 2700 BC to 2300 BC. If we turn from prehistoric to historical times, we at once note the presence here of the Ionians. In the 6th century BC, Syros was a flourishing island. After the Persian Wars, Syros was an ally of the Athenians. Then it followed the rule of the Macedonians, the Romans and the Byzantines. From 1207 the island passed through the hands of many Venetian masters before finally falling to the Turks in 1537.

The Archaeological Museum of Syros, founded in 1835, is one of the oldest in Greece. In 1899, the Municipality of Ermoupolis offered some rooms of the Town Hall, a building designed by Ernst Ziller, for the exhibition of antiquities. The museum includes the following collections, Prehistoric finds from the fortified settlement at Kastri and the cemetery at Chalandriani, dated to the Early Bronze Age from the 3rd millenium B.C..

Syros has been one of the Cycladic Civilization centers. It has been inhabited since the Neolithic years and there are archaeological finds that date back to the start of the Neolithic Age around 3000 BC.

In the 13th century the Venetians conquered it and built the medieval town of Ano Syros. Before 1821 the seashore had been deserted and the only place that was inhabited was Ano Syros. After the declaration of the Greek Revolution the island came under trench protection and became a safe shelter for many refugees from every place in Greece. Because of the privileged position of the port, it soon became one of the most commercially powerful towns of Greece.

Ermoupolis is one of the most important towns of the Aegean Sea. It is built in an amphitheatrical way with neoclassical mansions. The Miaoulis Place, where the town hall was built under the plans of the architect Ziller in 1876-1881, are worth mentioning. The public theatre "Apollon" that is a micrography of the fabled Scalla of Milan, the church of the Christ's Transfiguration (Metamorphosis), and the church of His Ressurection (Anastasis) by the hill are quite important places to visit. Finally, the Conjectural Cycladic Center, the village of Posedonia that was named after the second greatest town of the island of Posedonia, which is also named Delagrazia after the small church of Virgin Mary (Madona Dela Grazia), is another notable place of Syros.

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