Walking Naxos Town (Chora): The 1207 Venetian Kastro, Bourgos and Old Market

Rising in a striking white-and-stone pyramid directly above the ferry harbour, Naxos Town (Chora) is split into two distinct historical worlds stacked one on top of the other: at the summit sits the austere, cream-stone fortified circle of the 1207 Venetian Kastro (built for the Catholic Latin nobility), while wrapping around its northern and western slopes is the snow-white, labyrinthine Greek Orthodox quarter of Bourgos and the Old Market.

1. Entering the 1207 Venetian Kastro (Via the "Trani Porta")

In 1207, following the Fourth Crusade, Venetian nobleman Marco Sanudo conquered Naxos and seventeen surrounding islands, establishing the Duchy of the Archipelago (Duchy of Naxos) that ruled the Cyclades for 350 years. On top of the ancient acropolis hill, Sanudo built a circular fortress whose outer perimeter wall is formed by the continuous, windowless back walls of the noblemen's three-storey stone mansions. Enter through the surviving northern arched gate, the Trani Porta ("Great Gate"):

• The Della Rocca-Barozzi Venetian Museum (Right inside the Trani Porta): step inside an intact 13th-century Venetian nobleman's mansion to see original family coats of arms, period furniture and terraced gardens.
• The 13th-Century Catholic Cathedral, Glezos Tower & Archaeological Museum: climb the quiet flagstone lanes (where descendants of the original Venetian-French Catholic families still live today) to the central square: admire the 1207 Catholic Cathedral of the Presentation of the Lord (with its double-sided 13th-century Byzantine icon of the Virgin and marble tomb slabs of the Dukes of Naxos on the floor), the crenellated Glezos (Krispi) Tower housing the Byzantine Museum, and the 17th-century Ursuline School & French School of Commerce (where Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, studied in 1897, now housing the Naxos Archaeological Museum and its 4,500-year-old Early Cycladic marble figurines).

2. Getting Lost in Bourgos & The Old Market Street

Descend through the southern Paraporti gate into the dazzling whitewashed maze of Bourgos and the Old Market (Palia Agora): here, narrow alleys pass through low whitewashed stone tunnel vaults (stegadia) lined with artisan loom weavers, ceramic studios, Kitron shops and hidden courtyard tavernas (like Metaxi Mas or Apostolis).