Ayios Nikolaos Church

In a town of neoclassical showpieces, the Church of Ayios Nikolaos, or Agios Nikolaos, is the great religious building of Ermoupoli, the capital of Syros Island. It is dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors, a fitting choice for a city built on shipping and trade. The church stands in the centre of town, close to the Apollon Theatre and the Town Hall, so that the civic, cultural and religious landmarks of Ermoupoli are grouped within a few minutes' walk of one another.

Construction began in 1848, in the first decades of the town's boom, and the church was inaugurated in 1870, so the project took more than twenty years. The long timetable reflects how it was financed: not by one patron but through contributions from the merchants, shipowners and townspeople who had made the town rich. It shows the confidence of a community that had grown from a settlement of refugees, who arrived in the 1820s after fleeing the Greek War of Independence, into a leading commercial centre of the Aegean.

The architecture reflects taste in nineteenth-century Greece, which combined the plan of the Byzantine church with a Western sense of proportion and decoration. Inside, visitors will find the usual Orthodox features: an iconostasis, hanging lamps, icons and painted decoration, in a space made larger and more formal than the island's village churches. As in most Greek towns, the church functions as a focus for local life.

Visitors are welcome to enter, and the church, like much of Ermoupoli’s townscape, is a reminder of the nineteenth-century boom in one of Greece’s great commercial towns, and there is no admission fee, although the church is a working place of worship and appropriate dress is expected, with covered shoulders and knees. Services follow the Orthodox calendar, and the feast of Saint Nicholas in December is a major event for the town. Visits are usually brief, but a few minutes inside are enough to feel the contrast with the busy squares outside.

The church sits comfortably on a walking route through the centre: Miaouli Square with its Town Hall, the Apollon Theatre, the waterfront promenade at Vaporia and the old market lanes are all close. For anyone interested in how Ermoupoli's wealth was expressed in public buildings, the church is a worthwhile stop, and it is a restful place in the middle of the day when the squares are hot.