Photo spot in Syros
Miaouli Square and the Apollon Theatre
An expanse of marble paving in front of a neoclassical town hall, with palms, a bandstand and a miniature opera house a minute away.
About Miaouli Square and the Apollon Theatre
Get directionsMiaouli Square is the largest public room in the Cyclades. Ernst Ziller's town hall of 1876 closes one end with a colonnade and a clock, the paving is marble from end to end, and the flanks are palm trees, a marble bandstand and cafés under arcades. It was built with shipping money in a town that briefly out-traded Piraeus, and it still fills every evening with families walking rather than sitting.
Shoot from the low steps at the harbour end for the full width with the town hall centred, or work close in against the arcades where the marble bounces a soft, even light onto faces. A minute up Apollonos street stands the Apollon Theatre, an 1864 opera house modelled on La Scala, whose painted red-and-gold facade makes a compact, formal frame that looks nothing like the rest of Greece.
The marble is brutal at midday — it glares and it throws hot light up under the chin — so work the last two hours of daylight and stay for blue hour, when the town hall floodlights come on and the square photographs at its best. The square is public and free; the theatre interior has visiting hours and a small ticket, and any shoot inside needs to be agreed with the theatre first.
Best time to shoot
The last two hours of daylight, then blue hour once the town hall is lit
Tips
Skip midday: the marble glares and lights faces from below. The theatre interior needs permission and a ticket — the square outside needs neither. Weekday evenings are calmer than weekends, when the whole town walks here.
Other spots in Syros
Vaporia and Agios Nikolaos
Pastel captains' houses standing straight out of the sea, with a blue-domed church above and swimming ledges instead of a beach.
The stepped lanes of Ano Syros
A medieval Catholic hill town of vaulted passages and stone stairs, climbing to a cathedral with the whole island underneath.
Galissas beach and its tamarisks
The island's sheltered sandy bay, with a line of tamarisk trees for shade and a chapel on the headland at its northern end.
Ready to book?
Our concierge team will hand-pick 2-3 photographers who know Miaouli Square and the Apollon Theatre — free of charge.