Naoussa

Naoussa sits in the northeastern corner of Paros, a working harbour town that had a population of 3,134 at the 2021 census. Unlike Parikia, the island's capital on the opposite coast, Naoussa began life as a small fishing settlement, and its layout of narrow lanes wrapped around a curved bay still reflects that original purpose rather than any later resort planning.

The Venetian Port and Its Half-Sunken Tower

Venetian settlers fortified the port in the late 14th century, building a defensive tower to protect the harbour from raiders; part of that structure still stands at the entrance to the bay today. Known locally as the Kastelli, the surviving fragment now sits half submerged at the mouth of the old harbour, its stonework worn round by the sea. Its purpose was straightforward: from that position a watchman could see the whole bay of Naoussa and raise the alarm long before a hostile sail reached the quay. The bay itself, deep and well sheltered, is the reason the Venetians bothered at all, and it has shaped the town's history ever since.

Barbarossa, Pirates and a Russian Fleet

The anxiety about raiders was not theoretical. In 1537 the Ottoman admiral and corsair Hayreddin Barbarossa attacked Naoussa, an event the town has never quite let go of: every year on 23 August the harbour stages the Barbarossa Pirate Festival, a re-enactment in which boats full of costumed raiders storm the waterfront amid fireworks, followed by dancing and eating that runs deep into the night. It is one of the largest summer events in the Cyclades and one of the few Greek festivals built around a specific documented raid rather than a saint's day.

Two centuries later the same sheltered water attracted a very different fleet. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1768 to 1774, the Russian navy under Count Alexey Orlov used Naoussa bay as a naval base and military headquarters for operations across the Aegean, taking advantage of exactly the anchorage the Venetians had once fortified.

A Mycenaean Acropolis Above the Bay

The story begins much earlier still. On the hill of Koukounaries, above Kolymbithres on the western side of the bay, a fortified acropolis was established shortly after 1200 BC, in the final phase of the Mycenaean world. A substantial mansion crowned the hill, protected by walls of the massive Cyclopean type. It did not last: the mansion was destroyed by fire during the Late Helladic IIIC period, and the excavator has suggested pirates, Mycenaean refugees or hostile neighbours from Naxos as possible causes. Part of the site was briefly reoccupied around 1100 BC. The hill was excavated between 1976 and 1992 by Demetrius Schilardi for the Athens Archaeological Society, and it remains one of the more important Late Bronze Age sites in the Cyclades.

The Beaches of Naoussa Bay

The village's fortunes have long been tied to the sea beyond defence, too. Fishing boats still work the same waters each morning, and nearby beaches such as Kolymbithres, with their wind-carved granite outcrops, draw swimmers through the summer months. The name translates roughly as "baptismal fonts", a reference to the way the eroded boulders split the shoreline into a series of small, shallow, semi-enclosed pools. Monastiri, about seven kilometres from town, lies inside the Paros Park on the Agios Ioannis Detis headland, a protected area with marked walking trails, a lighthouse and an open-air summer cinema, reachable by water taxi straight from Naoussa harbour. Santa Maria, some five kilometres away on the more exposed side, is the windsurfing beach. Winters here are noticeably cooler than the Cycladic average, occasionally bringing snow to the surrounding hills.

Paros Beyond the Harbour

Naoussa is one corner of an island covering about 196 square kilometres, with a resident population of 14,520 at the last census and a highest point at Profitis Ilias, 724 metres above the sea. Paros made its name on stone: the translucent white marble quarried on the northern slopes of Mount Marathi supplied Greek sculptors from the sixth century BC onward and was used for the Venus de Milo. Parikia, a short drive across the island, holds the fourth-century church of Panagia Ekatontapyliani and serves as one of the busiest ferry hubs in the Aegean, with daily sailings to Piraeus, Naxos, Mykonos, Ios and Santorini. That mix of a working port, historic stonework and easy access to open water is precisely why Naoussa has become a popular stop for gulet charter guests exploring Greece, who can anchor for the afternoon and walk into the old harbour for dinner.