skyros

The municipality Skyros is part of the regional unit of Euboea.{{Cite web |url=http://www.et.gr/idocs-nph/search/pdfViewerForm.html?args=5C7QrtC22wGYK2xFpSwMnXdtvSoClrL8-SrPzKAEPjjtIl9LGdkF53UIxsx942CdyqxSQYNuqAGCF0IfB9HI6hq6ZkZV96FIukI0UzcPsWCK0LpLhpa7rhiWB4R5ntTnoWw7U8E1Amg. |title=ΦΕΚ A 87/2010, Kallikratis reform law text |language=el |publisher=Government Gazette |access-date=2021-09-07 |archive-date=2021-10-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023193509/http://www.et.gr/idocs-nph/search/pdfViewerForm.html?args=5C7QrtC22wGYK2xFpSwMnXdtvSoClrL8-SrPzKAEPjjtIl9LGdkF53UIxsx942CdyqxSQYNuqAGCF0IfB9HI6hq6ZkZV96FIukI0UzcPsWCK0LpLhpa7rhiWB4R5ntTnoWw7U8E1Amg. |url-status=live }} Apart from the island Skyros, the municipality consists of the small inhabited island of Skyropoula and a few smaller uninhabited islands. The total area of the municipality is {{cvt|223.10|km2|0|abbr=out}}.{{cite web |url=http://dlib.statistics.gr/Book/GRESYE_02_0101_00098%20.pdf |publisher=National Statistical Service of Greece |title=Population & housing census 2001 (incl. area and average elevation) |language=el|access-date=11 November 2016|archive-date=21 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921212047/http://dlib.statistics.gr/Book/GRESYE_02_0101_00098%20.pdf|url-status=live}}

One account associates the name Skyros with skyron or skiron, meaning "stone debris".{{cite web |url=http://goevia.com/en/skyros/culture-and-history-skyros/history-of-skyros |title=History of Skyros Island |year=2016 |access-date=9 November 2018 |quote="Skiron" or "Skyron" means "stone debris". |archive-date=8 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208171243/http://goevia.com/en/skyros/culture-and-history-skyros/history-of-skyros |url-status=live}} The island had a reputation for its decorative stone.{{cite conference |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=51vdxp7FUdwC |title=Characterisation and differentiation of the Skyros marbles (Greece) and the Medici's breccias (Italy) |first=Lorenzo |last=Lazzarini |year=1999 |conference=Conference internationale ASMOSIA (Association for the Study of Marble and Other Stones used in Antiquity) |editor=Max Schvoerer |others=Centre de recherche en physique appliquée à l'archéologie |volume=4 |book-title=Actes de la Conference internationale ASMOSIA, 9-13 Octobre 1995, Archeomateriaux - Marbres at autres roches |publisher=Presses Univ. de Bordeaux |isbn=9782867812446 |access-date=9 November 2018 |quote=The breccias of the Greek island of Skyros were largely used since Roman times for their beauty and low price. |page=117 |archive-date=8 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208171243/https://books.google.com/books?id=51vdxp7FUdwC |url-status=live}}

File:Skyros Satellite.jpg|Satellite photo of Skyros and Skyropoula

File:Map of Skyros - Bordone Benedetto - 1547.jpg|Map of Skyros by Benedetto Bordone, 1547

File:ISLANDS off THESSALY, Skyros. c. 485-480 BC.jpg

{{Further|topic=the ancient port town|Cresium}}

According to Greek mythology, Theseus died on Skyros when the local king, Lycomedes, threw him from a cliff. The island is also famous in the myths as the place from where Achilles set sail for Troy after Odysseus discovered him in the court of Lycomedes.{{Cite Iliad|19.326}} Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, was from Skyros (or Scyros, as its name is sometimes transliterated), as told in Book Nineteen of the Iliad (lines 326-327) and in the play by Sophocles, Philoctetes (line 239). A small bay named Achili on the east coast of the island is said to be the place from where Achilles left with the Greeks, or rather where Achilles landed during a squall that befell the Greek fleet following an abortive initial expedition landing astray in Mysia.See scholia (bT) ad Iliad 9.326 for the latter story and the harbor's name.

In {{circa}} 475 BC, according to Thucydides (1.98), Cimon defeated the Dolopians (the original inhabitants) and conquered the entire island. From that date, Athenian settlers colonized it and it became a part of the Athenian Empire. The island lay on the strategic trade route between Attica and the Black Sea (Athens depended on supplies of grain reaching it through the Hellespont). Cimon claimed to have found the remains of Theseus, and returned them to Athens.

In 340 BC, the Macedonians took over the island and dominated it until 192 BC, when King Philip V of Macedon and the Roman Republican forces restored it to Athens.

File:Κάστρο Σκύρου - Είσοδος.jpg

File:Vue du village de St George de Skyros - Choiseul-gouffier Gabriel Florent Auguste De - 1782.jpg

File:Admiralty Chart No 2048 Skyros, Published 1851.jpg

After the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204, the island became part of the domain of Geremia Ghisi. The Byzantines retook it in 1277. After the Fall of Constantinople, Venetians again ruled the island until 1538, when it passed to the Ottoman Empire. It became part of the new Greek state in 1830.

In 1848, Captain Thomas Graves surveyed Skyros for the British Admiralty in the frigate {{HMS|Volage|1825|6}}. He travelled around the island, and a record of his observations was published the following year.{{cite journal |last1=Graves |first1=Thomas |title=The Isle of Skyros |journal=The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London |date=1849 |volume=19 |pages=152–160 |doi=10.2307/1798090 |jstor=1798090 |url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-1798090}}

Rupert Brooke, the famous English poet, is buried on Skyros, having died on board a French hospital-ship moored off the island on 23 April 1915, during World War I.{{cite web |url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jbrooke.htm |title=Rupert Brooke |access-date=2 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100405092446/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jbrooke.htm |archive-date=5 April 2010}} Present at Brooke's burial that same evening, were Patrick Shaw-Stewart and William Denis Browne.{{cite web |url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/May02/WDBrown.htm |title=William Denis Browne (1888–1915) |first=Pamela |last=Blevins |work=Musicweb International |year=2000 |access-date=9 November 2007 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140510/http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/May02/WDBrown.htm |url-status=live}} The tomb that visitors see today when they visit the grave, which is located in the Tris Boukes Bay, is one that was commissioned by Brooke’s mother and was placed after the 1st World War. On the tomb is an inscription of Brooke's famous poem The Soldier.{{cite web |url=https://www.aroundskyros.com/things-to-do/#grave |title=Grave of Rupert Brooke |access-date=15 November 2019 |archive-date=8 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208171301/https://www.aroundskyros.com/things-to-do/#grave |url-status=live}}

In 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Karl Shapiro wrote the World War II poem Scyros, which he set on the island Skyros "because it was a tribute to and irony upon Rupert Brooke."{{Cite book |title=Poet : an autobiography in three parts |last=Shapiro |first=Karl |date=1988–1990 |publisher=Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill |isbn=0912697865 |volume=The Younger Son |pages=[https://archive.org/details/poetautobiograph0000shap/page/119 119] |oclc=17651234 |url=https://archive.org/details/poetautobiograph0000shap/page/119}}

In 1963 the Archaeological Museum of Skyros was established, with the inauguration taking place 10 years later in 1973. The Faltaits Folklore Museum was founded in 1964{{Cite web |url=http://users.otenet.gr/~faltaits/english/museum.htm |title=museum |website=users.otenet.gr |access-date=2018-11-09 |archive-date=2019-06-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190614115939/http://users.otenet.gr/~faltaits/english/museum.htm |url-status=live }} - one of the first local folklore museums to operate in Greece.{{cite web |url=https://www.aroundgreece.net/greek-islands/sporades/skyros/ |title=Guide to the island of Skyros |access-date=23 February 2018 |archive-date=8 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208171246/https://www.aroundgreece.net/greek-islands/sporades/skyros/ |url-status=live}}

In 1918, during the spanish flu, approximately one third of the island's population died in less than 30 days. Specifically, the influenza began on 27 October 1918, and of the 3,200 inhabitants on the island, almost 2,000 were infected and 1,000 died.{{Cite journal |title=A paediatric influenza update 100 years after the Skyros island Spanish flu outbreak - Spandidos Publications |journal=Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine |date=June 2019 |volume=17 |issue=6 |pages=4327–4336 |doi=10.3892/etm.2019.7515 |last1=Mammas |first1=Ioannis N. |last2=Theodoridou |first2=Maria |last3=Thiagarajan |first3=Prakash |last4=Melidou |first4=Angeliki |last5=Papaioannou |first5=Georgia |last6=Korovessi |first6=Paraskevi |last7=Koutsaftiki |first7=Chryssie |last8=Papatheodoropoulou |first8=Alexia |last9=Calachanis |first9=Marcos |last10=Dalianis |first10=Tina |last11=Spandidos |first11=Demetrios A. |pmid=31186675 |pmc=6507498}} {{ill|Konstantinos Faltaits|el|Κωνσταντίνος Φαλτάιτς}} described the dire consequences of the pandemic in a rare chronicle published in 1919, titled {{lang|el|Ἡ γρίππη στὴ Σκῦρο}} {{gloss|The flu in Skyros}}.{{Cite news |last=Καλαμαράς |first=Βασίλης Κ. |date=9 November 2020 |title=Κωνσταντίνος Φαλτάιτς (1891-1944): Το χρονικό της ισπανικής γρίππης στη Σκύρο |language=el |work=Enetpress |url=https://www.enetpress.gr/κωνσταντίνος-φαλτάιτς-1891-1944-το-χρονικό-τ/}}

The north of the island is covered by a forest, while the south, dominated by the highest mountain, called Kochila, (792 m), is bare and rocky. The island's capital is also called Skyros (or, locally, Chora). The main port, on the west coast, is Linaria. The island has a castle (the kastro) that dates from the Venetian occupation (13th to 15th centuries), a Byzantine monastery (the Monastery of Saint George), the grave of English poet Rupert Brooke in an olive grove by the road leading to Tris Boukes harbour. There are many beaches on the coast. The island has its own breed of Skyrian ponies.

{{clear}}

Skyros has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa) with mild to cool, rainy winters and pleasantly warm, dry summers.

{{Weather box

| location = Skyros airport (1955-2010) HNMS

| metric first = yes

| single line = yes

| Jan high C = 12.3

| Feb high C = 12.7

| Mar high C = 14.1

| Apr high C = 17.7

| May high C = 22

| Jun high C = 26.3

| Jul high C = 27.9

| Aug high C = 27.6

| Sep high C = 24.7

| Oct high C = 20.8

| Nov high C = 17.2

| Dec high C = 13.9

| Jan low C = 7.4

| Feb low C = 7.4

| Mar low C = 8.7

| Apr low C = 11.4

| May low C = 15

| Jun low C = 19.3

| Jul low C = 21.7

| Aug low C = 21.7

| Sep low C = 18.8

| Oct low C = 15.5

| Nov low C = 12

| Dec low C = 9.1

| precipitation colour = green

| Jan precipitation mm = 70.6

| Feb precipitation mm = 55.3

| Mar precipitation mm = 49.9

| Apr precipitation mm = 24.3

| May precipitation mm = 15.4

| Jun precipitation mm = 6.5

| Jul precipitation mm = 5.9

| Aug precipitation mm = 8.4

| Sep precipitation mm = 19.4

| Oct precipitation mm = 36.7

| Nov precipitation mm = 54.6

| Dec precipitation mm = 81.1

| source = HNMS (1955-2010 averages){{cite web | url=http://www.hnms.gr/emy/en/climatology/climatology_city?perifereia=Sterea&poli=Skyros | title=Climatic Data by City, HNMS, Hellenic National Meteorological Service }}

}}

Skyros is home to the Skyros Island National Airport, a one-runway airport.

Skyros Shipping Company operates the ferry service to Skyros. During holiday season the ferry runs twice daily from Kymi to Linaria on Skyros. During the winter months the service operates daily.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Skyros Island Beach Guide |url=http://www.greekisland.co.uk/skyros/skyros.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200328103220/http://www.greekisland.co.uk/skyros/skyros.htm|archive-date=28 March 2020|access-date= |website=Greek Islands Postcards}} The ship has the name "Achilleas SKYROS SHIPPING CO." (Greek: Αχιλλέας ΣΚΥΡΟΣ ΝΑΥΤΙΚΗ ΕΤΑΙΡΙΑ).

File:The town of Skyros island, Greece - panoramio.jpg|View of Chora

File:A street in Skyros, Greece.jpg|Street of Skyros

File:Skyros, Greece.jpg|Aerial view

File:The Skyros pony.jpg|Skyros pony

File:Skyros - 2013-03 - Carnaval place centrale (dimanche).JPG|Fest during the carnival

File:Skyros - 2013-03 - Plateia Brook.JPG|Brooke Square

File:Vraka Skyros Greek Costume.JPG|Traditional dress (Vraka) of Skyros

File:Archaeological Site of Palamari at Skyros 2022.jpg|Archaeological Site of Palamari

File:Agios Nikolaos Church in Skyros 2022.jpg|Agios Nikolaos Church in Molos

File:Shipwreck on Agalipas Beach in Skyros.jpg|Shipwreck on Agalipas Beach

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/greek_islands/sporades/skyros_the_largest_of_the_sporades_islands Sporades] at the official website of the Greek National Tourism Organisation
• [http://www.sne.gr The official website of the Skyros Shipping Company]

• {{commons category-inline|Skyros}}
• {{wikivoyage inline|Skyros}}

{{Sporades}}

{{Kallikratis-Central Greece}}

{{Aegean Sea}}

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Category:Islands of Central Greece

Category:Islands of Greece

Category:Landforms of Euboea (regional unit)

Category:Locations in Greek mythology

Category:Locations in the Iliad

Category:Mediterranean port cities and towns in Greece

Category:Municipalities of Central Greece

Category:Populated places in Euboea (regional unit)

Category:Populated places in the ancient Aegean islands

Category:Sporades

Category:Territories of the Republic of Venice