Kastro and the Seven Martyrs chapel

Kastro was the capital of Sifnos for two thousand years and still reads as a fortification, because that is what it is: the outer houses stand shoulder to shoulder with almost no openings on the seaward side, so the village turns a solid wall to anyone arriving by boat. Inside, the lanes are barely two metres wide, roofed over in places, and lined with outside staircases, marble lintels and Venetian coats of arms cut into the stone.

The frame everyone comes for is from the eastern edge: the chapel of the Seven Martyrs, whitewashed and alone on a low rock with water on three sides, joined to the village by a short path. Shoot it from the terrace above for the classic wide, or walk down and use the chapel wall as a clean white backdrop with nothing but sea behind you.

Kastro faces east, so the walls and the chapel light up at sunrise and fall into shade by late afternoon — which is exactly when the light inside the lanes becomes soft and even. Cars stop outside the walls, so allow ten minutes on foot, and keep to flat shoes: the path down to the chapel is worn smooth and the marble steps are slippery when damp.