Why Poros
There are islands in the Saronic Gulf whose greatest pleasure is not a single monument or a celebrated beach but the quality of the whole — the feeling of the place, the specific atmosphere of its harbour and its waterfront and its relationship with the mainland coast that lies, in Poros’s extraordinary case, barely 400 metres away across the narrowest sea channel in the Saronic world. Poros is an island of 31 square kilometres composed of two distinct geological formations — the larger, pine-forested island of Kalavria in the north, and the tiny volcanic cone of Sferia in the south, on which the town of Poros is built — connected by a low land bridge and constituting together an island of great variety and great natural beauty in an exceptionally sheltered position in the southern Saronic Gulf. The town of Poros itself — a cascade of white and pastel-coloured houses climbing the volcanic cone of Sferia to a clocktower at its summit, its waterfront an animated promenade of tavernas and cafés facing the mainland town of Galatas across the narrow channel — is one of the most immediately appealing and most completely characteristic Saronic harbour towns in the archipelago, its combination of maritime energy, architectural beauty, and the extraordinary visual effect of the channel itself creating an atmosphere entirely its own among the islands of the gulf.
The narrow strait between Poros and Galatas — barely 400 metres at its narrowest point, its water of deep Saronic blue flowing between the island waterfront and the orange groves and lemon trees of the Peloponnese opposite — is one of the most completely beautiful and most continuously animated water passages in Greece. Small boats and water taxis cross it constantly, the ferry from Piraeus turns in it with theatrical deliberateness, sailboats and motor yachts navigate it with care and obvious pleasure, and the combination of the town waterfront on one side and the green Peloponnese coast on the other gives the channel the quality of a living, continuously changing picture of the greatest beauty and the greatest variety. Arriving in Poros by boat — turning into the channel and having the full length of the waterfront open before you — is one of the finest harbour arrivals in the Saronic Gulf.
Poros has a history of considerable depth and considerable distinction. The ancient Sanctuary of Poseidon, in the pine forest of Kalavria five kilometres from the town, was the meeting place of the Kalaurian League — an ancient maritime alliance of seven Greek city-states — and is the site of one of the most historically charged moments in Athenian history: the death of Demosthenes, the greatest orator of the ancient world, who fled here in 322 BC after the Macedonian conquest and, cornered in the temple precinct by soldiers of Antipater, took poison rather than be captured. The Russian Naval Station established here in 1828 — whose warehouses and facilities on the island of Bourtzi gave the Russian navy its only permanent Mediterranean base — and the role of Poros in the early history of the modern Greek state as a naval base and shipbuilding centre complete a historical record of surprising richness for an island of modest size in a position that might appear to be primarily scenic.
What to Do and What to See
Poros Town and the Clocktower
The town of Poros — built entirely on the small volcanic cone of Sferia — is one of the most visually distinctive and most completely enjoyable small island towns in the Saronic Gulf, its lanes climbing steeply from the waterfront to the clocktower at the summit in a series of steps and switchbacks through the characteristic blue-shuttered, white-washed architecture of the Saronic island world. The clocktower at the top — a landmark visible from every point in the channel and the standard meeting point for the island’s community — commands a view of the strait, the Kalavria pine forests, and the Peloponnese coast of extraordinary completeness and extraordinary beauty. The waterfront promenade below is the social heart of the island — lined with the tavernas, cafés, and boat-hire establishments that make Poros one of the most accessible and most completely animated harbour fronts in the Saronic gulf, its tables occupied from breakfast to late at night and its atmosphere one of easy, uncomplicated, entirely genuine Saronic sociability.
The Sanctuary of Poseidon
In the pine-forested interior of Kalavria, five kilometres from the town on the road that crosses the island through its extraordinary forest of Aleppo pine, the ancient Sanctuary of Poseidon preserves the foundations of a Doric temple of the 6th century BC whose setting — in a clearing of the pine forest on a ridge with views of the surrounding sea — has a quality of sacred landscape entirely characteristic of the ancient Greek instinct for positioning religious architecture at precisely the point where the natural world is most completely overwhelming. The sanctuary was the political centre of the Kalaurian League and one of the most important maritime sanctuaries of the archaic Greek world. The death of Demosthenes here gives it a historical charge that no amount of ruination can diminish.
The Beaches and the Pine Forest
The pine forest of Kalavria — the finest and most extensive on any Saronic island — descends in several places directly to the sea, its trees providing shade to the pebble and sand beaches of the island’s northern coast in a combination of natural beauty that is entirely characteristic of Poros and entirely unavailable on the more arid Saronic islands. Russian Bay, on the northern coast, is a wide, sheltered beach of great natural quality whose name commemorates the Russian naval presence of the early 19th century. Love Bay, on the western coast, is a smaller and more intimate cove of great beauty, its pine-shaded water and secluded position making it the most romantic and most completely natural beach on the island.
The Temple of Poseidon Archaeological Museum
In Poros town, the small Archaeological Museum houses finds from the Sanctuary of Poseidon and other sites in the region of Troezenia — the ancient territory of the Peloponnese coast opposite — in a collection of modest scale but genuine historical interest, including material from the prehistoric settlement at Galatas and architectural fragments from the temple itself.
Why Choose Poros
Poros is the island for those who want the complete Saronic experience in the most accessible and most immediately engaging of the gulf’s island towns — who want the animated waterfront, the pine forest, the historical sanctuary, the extraordinary channel, and the easy connection to both the Peloponnese coast opposite and the other Saronic islands to the south, in a setting of genuine natural beauty and genuine community warmth that makes every visit effortless and every return inevitable. For the sailing visitor, the channel of Poros is one of the great theatrical passages of the Saronic gulf — a piece of maritime theatre so completely and so immediately beautiful that the act of navigating it, in any conditions and at any hour, is one of the finest single experiences that sailing in the Saronic world can offer.
