Chios

ΑAn island with a monopoly

Mastic — the aromatic resin that drips from cuts made in the bark of a particular variety of lentisk — is produced commercially nowhere in the world except the southern third of Chios. The Genoese ran the trade as a state monopoly from the fourteenth century, the Ottomans took it over and guarded it just as closely, and the twenty-odd villages that grew the crop were built as fortresses to protect it. UNESCO put the know-how of mastic cultivation on its intangible heritage list in 2014. That one plant explains the island's architecture, its wealth, and a good deal of its history.

ΒThe mastic villages

Mesta is the one to see first: a medieval village laid out as a single defensive block, outer houses forming a continuous wall with no windows facing out, streets so narrow and vaulted that they work as tunnels, and a church in the middle of the maze. Pyrgi, fifteen minutes away, is covered head to foot in xysta — grey-and-white geometric patterns scratched through plaster — which makes the main square look like a very large optical illusion. Olympi is the quietest of the three, with a tower still standing in the middle, and the cave of Olympi nearby is one of the better show caves in Greece. The Mastic Museum above Pyrgi explains the cultivation year properly.

ΓNea Moni, Anavatos and 1822

In the middle of the island, Nea Moni was founded by an emperor in the eleventh century and holds mosaics of that date that are among the finest to survive anywhere — it was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1990. An earthquake in 1881 brought down the dome, and the rebuilt one sits oddly over the originals. Nearby, Anavatos is an abandoned stone village stacked on a cliff, emptied after the Ottoman reprisals of 1822 in which tens of thousands of Chiots were killed or enslaved. The massacre shocked Europe, Delacroix painted it, and the island never fully recovered its population.

ΔChios town, Kampos and the beaches

The capital is a port city with a Genoese castle at one end, a maritime museum funded by the shipowning families the island still produces, and a waterfront that is working rather than pretty. South of it, Kampos is a district of walled citrus estates with stone mansions and water wheels, built by the Genoese gentry. For swimming, the south has Mavra Volia with its black volcanic pebbles and Komi with sand; the west has Elinta and Lithi; the north has Nagos and the long shingle of Managros. Karfas, near the airport, is the one with hotels.

ΕGetting there

Chios has an airport (JKH) with flights from Athens and Thessaloniki and limited seasonal links, ferries from Piraeus overnight, the North Aegean line to Lesvos and Samos, and a short crossing to Cesme in Turkey. From Romania, plan on connecting through Athens. See ferries and island hopping. A car is essential: the mastic villages are forty minutes from town, the west coast is further, and the bus network is built for residents. Chios is on the list of islands with the reduced VAT rate, which shows up in shop prices.

ΣΤWho it is for

Travellers who want a Greek island with a subject — architecture, a crop, a massacre, a monastery — and who do not need a beach bar. It suits drivers, photographers and people who like villages better than resorts. Skip it if you want nightlife or guaranteed sunbeds. One date worth knowing: on the night of Orthodox Easter the two parishes of Vrontados fire tens of thousands of homemade rockets at each other's church towers, which is as loud and as serious as it sounds.