3 Best Sights in The Northern Aegean Islands, Greece

In medieval times and later, wealthy Genoese and Greek merchants built ornate, earth-toned, three-story mansions on this fertile plain of tangerine, lemon, and orange groves south of Chios Town. On narrow lanes behind stone walls adorned with coats of arms, each estate is a world of its own, with multicolor sandstone patterns, arched doorways, and pebble-mosaic courtyards. Some houses have crumbled, but many still stand, surrounded by fragrant citrus orchards and reminders of the wealth, power, and eventual downfall of an earlier time. These suburbs of Chios Town are exceptional, but the unmarked lanes can be confusing, so leave time to get lost and to peek behind the walls into another world.

An air of mystery pervades this old Muslim and Jewish neighborhood, full of decaying monuments, fountains, hammam baths, and mosques, within the walls of the Kastro (castle) fortifications, built in the 10th century by the Byzantines and enlarged in the 14th century by the Genoese Giustiniani family. Under Turkish rule, the Greeks lived outside the wall, and the gates closed daily at sundown. Scattered among the precinct are several stone towers and, inside the old gate, the cells where the Turks jailed then hanged 75 leading Chiotes during the fight for independence in 1822, when Chios joined the rest of Greece in rebellion against the occupying Turks. The revolt here on the island failed, and the sultan retaliated: the Turks killed 30,000 Chiotes and enslaved 45,000. The event was written about by Victor Hugo and depicted by Eugène Delacroix in The Massacre of Chios. The painting, now in the Louvre, shocked Western Europe and increased support for Greek independence. Copies hang in many places on Chios, including in the Byzantine Museum. In Frouriou Square, look for the Turkish cemetery and the large marble tomb (with the fringed hat) of Kara Ali, chief of the Turkish flagship in 1822.

Stroll the main street, Ermou, which goes from the port on the north side of town to the port on the south side. Scruffy but characterful, Ouzo wholesalers rub shoulders with clothing boutiques. Walk past the fish market on the southern end, where men haul in their sardines, mullet, and octopus, and explore narrow lanes filled with grand old mansions in varying states of romantic ruin.