Holidaymakers who may be left with a feeling that the ‘real Greece’ has eluded them after a visit to throbbing stereotypes such as Myconos, Santorini and Rhodes, or even to those off-the-beaten- path, picture-postcard empty beaches and tranquil fishing villages, are certain to have missed Syros, the seat of the Cyclades. Heritage goes a long way toward shaping the character of a place, and Ermoupolis, the island’s capital and the administrative center of the Southern Aegean region, has loads of it. Without Ermoupolis, Syros would have looked like most other Cyclades islands, which nowadays are more or less defined by their tourism industry. Founded in the 1820s around the naturally sheltered Syros harbor by enterprising Greek refugees fleeing mainly from Asia Minor and the island of Chios after the outbreak of the War of Independence, Ermoupolis was named after Hermes, the ancient god of commerce, as Greeks turned to their classical roots for nation-building. It soon became the fledgling nation’s biggest port and economic capital. Along with the transit trade, shipbuilding and its related industries spearheaded the drive to prosperity, which brought a flourishing of the arts and letters and a wide array of imposing neoclassical public and private buildings. Its population was 22,000 in 1889 – much greater than today. But by the end of the 19th century, the opening of the Corinth Canal and the continuous growth of Athens had already set the slow decline of Ermoupolis in motion.

Tourism revived the island in the 1980s, aided by the shipbuilding industry, a sizable farm sector and administrative devolution. Helped by extensive restoration work in recent decades, Ermoupolis has seen much of its faded luster return and can still boast the most impressive collection of 19th century architecture among the islands, if not in all of Greece. But it is very much a vibrant, working, year-round city, with a great deal of cultural life, dozens of restaurants of all types, cafes, nightlife, shops and a casino. Blending splendor and decay, it feels like a little Palermo on the Aegean. The expansive Plateia Miaouli is the heart of the neoclassical town, a pleasant marbled square of palm trees, cafes and arcades dominated by the monumental town hall. Adjacent grand mansions house the Municipal Cultural Center and the historical archives. Directly behind the cultural center is the Apollon Theater, said to be a scaled-down model of Milan’s famous La Scala. It neighbors the Vaporia quarter, with the impressive mansions where the island’s wealthiest families once lived, above the Orthodox Cathedral of Aghios Nikolaos.