Chora (Patmos Town)

Climbing the hill above the port of Skala, the whitewashed town of Chora is the medieval capital of Patmos and one of the best-preserved settlements in the Dodecanese. It was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1999, together with the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse, in recognition of the island's role as a place of Christian pilgrimage. The town grew around the monastery after its founding in 1088 by the monk Christodoulos, and its fortress-like layout reflects centuries when pirates threatened the Aegean.

The monastery dominates the summit, a walled complex with towers and battlements that looks more like a castle than a place of prayer. Below it, the houses of Chora are arranged in a tight tangle of lanes with arches, steps and blank outer walls, designed to resist raids. Many of the larger mansions date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Patmian merchants and sea captains grew wealthy through trade, and their carved doorways, courtyards and painted ceilings show a surprising degree of refinement. Several have been restored as guesthouses, and a few, like the Simantiris House, are open to the public.

The island's religious significance comes from the tradition that Saint John, exiled to Patmos by the Romans, received the visions that make up the Book of Revelation in a cave on the hillside below Chora. Pilgrims and visitors walk down a path to the cave, a small chapel with a cleft in the rock, and then climb back to the town. The monastery museum, in turn, holds a notable collection of icons, manuscripts and liturgical objects, including documents that trace the history of Patmos over nearly a thousand years.

Visitors will find the atmosphere in Chora quieter than on many Greek islands, in part because of the island's pilgrim character and in part because of strict building rules that have kept new construction low and in keeping with the old town. A row of windmills stands on a ridge on the edge of the settlement, and the view from the terraces over neighbouring islands is memorable, especially at sunset.

The town is about four kilometres uphill from Skala and is reached by local bus, taxi or a footpath following an old pilgrim track. The lanes are steep and often confusing, which is part of their charm. The spiritual role of Patmos’s monastic community has been called a force in shaping Western religious thought, and a slow walk through Chora gives some feeling for why.