Apollonía - Kástro via Kato Petáli and back to
Artemónas
Evaluation:
This is an easy and rather short hike, which leads you to some of the
most beautiful places of Sífnos: the old fortified capital Kástro, with
very picturesque little streets, the wonderfully situated monastery of Panagía Pouláti, and finally
Artemónas. From Artemónas you can take the
pedestrian street to stroll back to Apollonía along little churches and
majestic houses. This hike definitely deserves an evaluation of **.
Estimated
time: The
hike itself is really not very long, maybe two times one hour. But you
really have to visit Kástro extensively and it is a must to eat on one
of its outdoor cafés. When the weather allows you to, you can take a
swim under Panagía Pouláti, and you can easily spend the rest of the
afternoon by walking back to Apollonía via Artemónas – this definitely
makes for a full day trip…
Route
description:
[The bus from Kamáres stops
in the center of
Apollonía on the Platia Iroöon (Square of Heroes), where you can
find the Folk Museum (closed on Sunday mornings), the war monument and the post
office.
The recent hiking poles with information about the walks [7], [3] and [5] and
[6] are been found on the left side of the little square.
(0h00)
From the bus
square of Apollonía, you take for a short while the main street to Katavatí, in
between a bar and the upper square, opposite the Piraeus Bank (road sign “no
entry” / very small sign for walks [3], [5] and [6]), but almost immediately -
when the main street curves to the right next to the Christós church - , you
take the little street and the stairs down to the left ([3] and red and white
mark =). In this way you walk underneath the main road. Shortly afterwards you
will find a path going up on the left, but you continue straight, in south
eastern direction. By doing so you gradually descend, following the nicely paved
path in the direction of the big church of
Káto Petáli, which can be recognized by two towers and a blue dome. The
beautifully paved path - sometimes it is a flight of stairs - zigzags between
fields with olive trees, bee hives and some pigeon towers – high up on the left
you see the big church of Páno Petáli.
After a little more than 3 minutes, you zigzag left and right and after some six
minutes you arrive in a valley and you take a left, until you have crossed a
bridge some 30 metres further. Then you go right again, in the direction of Káto
Petáli. At a small church you pass a street off the right and a little further
there is another path off the left. Now, you walk on a concrete trail, still in
the direction of Káto Petáli. Another nicely paved staircase brings you to the
right of the village, at a little square with benches - higher up you see a
school and the large church of Zoödóchos Pigí.
(0h12)
You go down to the
right for a little while, you pass along the shortest side of a parking lot, you
go straight on a concrete path (hiking pole
[3] to Moní Vrýsis 45' / 2,1
km - Chryssopigí 2h20 / 6,4 km and Platýs Gialós 2h16 / 6,1 km)
and you walk in between walls and houses,
straight towards the south.
[On the
left hand side of these houses there is a small street which goes to the
beautiful church of Agios Antónios: inside this church you can admire a nice
rood loft with a staircase, and on the ground there is a coat of arms in stone
with a double eagle and the date 1896.]
T
[If you want to visit the little church of Panagía tou Koukiá,
you can take a right here for a short while: this path crosses the
valley and goes up steeply till the church. Immediately before the
church there is a rocky trail and a staircase leading in the direction
of Exámbela – after about 5 minutes you already reach the beginning
of the village. By keeping to the right you could thus continue and
zigzagingly you would get to the large church of Exámbela.
At the church of
the Panagía tou Koúkia you have a really nice view on Artemónas and
on Káto Petáli; this is a remarkably peaceful and isolated spot…
After your visit you have to return to the trail underneath Káto Petáli.]
(0h15)
You thus continue on the
cross-trail towards the left and always straight on a concrete path (=).
Soon the trail becomes rocky and you pass a pigeon tower on the right.
The path continues like a staircase. Some five minutes further down
there is a junction:
a little road goes down on the right, towards a
stone bridge – this is another way to get to Kástro (see the hike
Kástro - Káto Petali - Apollonía),
or to the monastery of Vrísis (see the hike Apollonía - Agios Andreas -
Vrísis). You, however, take a left and up, in south eastern direction,
this is the right way to go. You now walk flat, above the valley. You
pass a path on the left hand side and a couple of minutes later you see
a chapel with a double dome on the right: the Anargyri-church. You can
take a right for a quick visit of the church, inside you will find a
double ikonostási; in front of the church there is a beautiful
tombstone.
From
here on you go straight, towards the left, in the direction of a very
simple chapel with a flat roof and a white arch, higher upwards. After
some minutes you go left and then immediately right. You now walk in
between high walls and you arrive at the left side of the simple church.
Watch out now, you DO NOT follow the trail immediately to the right (it
is a dead end), but you only take a right after some 30 metres: to the
left there are a couple of buildings and a rectangular chapel, straight
ahead another trail continues like a small concrete road. A little
further on you pass another dead end road off the right and some 100 metres
afterwards you pass a narrow path off the left. You continue
straight and in this way you reach a concrete road. You then take a left
on this road – it has now been 15 minutes since you have left Káto
Petáli...
You
descend some 200 metres till you reach an asphalt road. You follow the
curve and after having crossed a tiny little bridge you take a path off
the right. This path goes down steeply and almost immediately you will
see the village of Kástro appearing on the right hand side. You follow
this trail/staircase, which descends into the valley, towards a little
chapel – inside there is still a wooden roof.
From
this chapel you could follow the valley until you get to the cemetery of
Kástro, but this involves quite a lot of climbing up and down! It is
much better to take the white flight of steps which goes up towards the
asphalt road, on the left of the chapel. You continue on this road, past
the graveyard with the two chapels with blue domes, till you reach Kástro. On the left side, you pass the trail you will take on the way
back - there is a sign to Panagía Pouláti. You can now first enter Kástro through the ancient entrance, as indicated by the sign. You find the
ancient entrance at the signpost to Seralia, the harbour of Kástro,
where you could go to have a swim. It has taken us only one hour to hike
to Kástro, but in this village you definitely have to walk around for a
couple of hours – it is worth it. There is a museum you can visit,
there are two beautiful outdoor cafés and you should not forget the
delicacies in the bakery To Konáki!
From
the northwestern part of Kástro you can then descend again through the
ancient entrance towards the two windmills. On the right of these mills
there goes a gravel road to the right (there is a sign to Panagía Pouláti), but after some 100
metres you leave this road – which leads
towards a water purification station. You now follow a very nice trail
off the left. Some 100 metres further on, there has been a caving in, so
you have to continue on the gravel road until the trail begins again on
the left and above the water purification station. The next 25 minutes
the trail continues above the beautiful rocky coastline like a balcony.
About 20 minutes later you get to a chapel – with a marvellous view on
both Kástro and Panagía Pouláti – and 5 minutes afterwards you reach
the monastery of Panagía Pouláti itself. Just before you get to the
monastery there goes a path down off the right. Taking this path brings
you after about 160 steps to the water. When the sea is calm you can
swim and snorkel here towards the rocks of Dialiskari. Also at the
monastery itself you have to take some time to enjoy the peace and
serenity.
Leaving
Panagía Pouláti, there is a beautiful staircase, which begins on the
right of the parking lot above the monastery and which goes all the way
up to Artemónas. The staircase, however, is criss-crossed a couple of
times by an ugly gravel road, but each time it is fairly easy to find
the steps again. After having crossed this gravel road for the first
time, though, you have to go up on the right hand side of the wall in
front of you, straight towards the windmills all the way up in Artemónas.
But after you have crossed the road for a second time, the staircase
gets really beautiful again. Halfway the third part of the climb you
pass a path coming from the right and you continue towards the left and
up. Your trail will then reach a couple of houses and the smallest,
restored windmill. After another 80 steps you will get to a –
sometimes paved - path in between walls, which continues upwards. This
path eventually leads to a kind of plateau, at an altitude of 200 metres
already! On the left there are some ruins of another mill and in front
of you, towards the west and south west, Artemónas is located; in the
north west you can distinguish another two mills. You continue the path
towards the left, on the right of the mill in ruins, and you walk on a
small concrete road in the direction of the church with a white dome. By
means of a staircase going down to the right you cross a little valley,
you continue then towards the left, and you get to the square Alexandros
Vernakos, on the right of the church. You take a right immediately and
in this way you get to the road from Apollonía to Artemónas, close to
Radio Sífnos. On the right you see hotel Artemónas and, some 200 metres
further on, there is the bus stop. Again a little further on is the
beautiful square, the Platia Artemónas, with some really pleasant
terraces. At this point you can either take the bus to Apollonía and
Kamáres, or you can walk (through the pedestrian street) to Apollonía.
The hike from Kástro to Artemónas has taken us about one hour (without
too many stops).