Symi Stories is an ongoing project. Send your Symi stories or photos from the past and help us develop a living history project for the island. We update the site when we have new stories and information on Symi history . To view a full post click the title.
This isn’t actually a Symi Story but a record of the formalities of living in Greece generally that we have been asked to publish. The post contains the text of the ‘Notes on Greece’ document as issued (January 2008) by
British Embassy
Athens
1 Ploutarchou Street
106 75 Athens
Consular Section
Telephone (0030) 210 7272 600
Facsimile (0030) 210 7272 720
www.british-embassy.gr
Consular.Athens@fco.gov.uk
PASSPORTS
Persons [...]
Religious feasts
Here are some feast days celebrated on Symi. More will be added over time.
2nd May Agios Athanasios
5th May Agia Irini
21st May Agios Konstantinos
24th June Agios Ioannis (Staphyla Pedi) & Pentecoste (Panormitis)
17th July Agia Marina (on the islet)
20th July Prophotos Elias
6th August Nimborio & Panormitis
15th August Panayia i Alithini
24th August Panayia (Nymos) and Panayia i [...]
I made my first visit to Symi in 1996, thanks to a small, but welcome, unexpected sum of money and some leave from work that was screaming out to be taken. Having been to Greece once before I had decided that that was where I would go, but I wanted somewhere quiet. Searching through some [...]
Eleftheria Spillaki was born and brought up on Symi in Horio.
Here, with permission, is an excerpt from one of Eleftheria’s poems, translated from Greek by the author. (Bear in mind that some words do not translate exactly, any mistakes in copying this from the handwritten pages are my own.)
My family home
My family home as I [...]
Near to the churches of Panagia, Agia Kara and Sotiras, which are built together on the ruins of an earlier, Byzantine church in Nimborio, it is possible to find and visit the ‘twelve caves’. These are also referred to at the catacombs and their original use is open to speculation. Perhaps they were a burial [...]
Nikitas, a relative of our neighbour, told us a story:
Symi during WWII, Nikitas was about seven years old and the island was occupied by the German forces though the situation was changing rapidly. Sometimes the Allies were here, then the Germans were back but he knows for sure the Italians had gone.
On Sundays the neighbourhood [...]
Here is a little Symi snippet which is interesting and fun.
I was talking with a neighbour, Petros, last night and he told me a story:
He was talking with his mother-in-law Anika, an elder lady who is now a great-grandmother, about having workmen in to redecorate the house. Anika (who speaks Symiaka, the local dialect with [...]
When people write about the history of Symi they, quite correctly, point out that in history the island has been known for shipbuilding, sponge diving and trade. What is not so often mentioned is that, in the Byzantine period and beyond, Symi was also producing wine. Evidence of this can be found on the island [...]
We are grateful to Christina for writing and sending some old Symi postcards. [See the Photos page]
Christina writes:
I was on line researching Symi, and came across your website.
I stayed the summer of 1974 there, when the war broke out on Cyprus- it was quite an experience
Here are two photos I took in 1974 of [...]
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| By N2H | |
