Part sacred (scores of churches), part sin (lots of nightlife), the hilly, wooded island of Skiathos is the closest of the Sporades to the Pelion Peninsula. The island covers an area of only 42 square km (16 square miles) but has some 70 beaches and sandy coves. A jet-set island 25 years ago, today Skiathos teems with European—mostly British and Dutch—tourists and promising sun, sea, and late-night revelry. Higher prices and a bit of Mykonos's attitude are part of the deal, too.
In winter most of the island's 5,000 or so inhabitants live in its main city, Skiathos Town, built after the War of Independence on the site of the colony founded in the 8th century BC by the Euboean city-state of Chalkis. Skiathos was on good terms with the Athenians, prized by the Macedonians, and treated gently by the Romans. Saracen and Slav raids left the island virtually deserted during the early Middle Ages, but it started to prosper during the later Byzantine years.
When the Crusaders deposed their fellow Christians from the throne of Constantinople in 1204, Skiathos and the other Sporades became the fief of the Ghisi, knights of Venice. One of their first acts was to fortify the hills on the islet separating the two bays of Skiathos harbor. Now connected to the shore, the Bourtzi castle-fortress still has a few stout walls and buttresses shaded by some graceful pine trees.
