24 Best Sights in The Cyclades, Greece

At the highest point on Pirgos hill, the Museum of Marble Crafts is a strikingly modern building where exhibits show the process of quarrying and carving the world famous stone. The tools and techniques are described in detail, as are the social and economic contexts in which the craft developed. The master artists' drawings for altarpieces and tomb sculptures are also on display, as are some of their works.

Syros's Archaeological Museum is located on the left side of the town hall. The small space features artifacts from the island’s rich history. The collection stretches back to the Neolithic era and includes artifacts taken from the prehistoric acropolis at Kastri to the north. Particularly illustrious are the Early Cycladic objects from Chalandriani (just south of Kastri), which indicate an advanced culture in the 3rd millennium BC. The museum, while not extensive, is one of the oldest in Greece.

A very small Archaeological Museum, established by a local mathematician, Michael Bardanis, displays Cycladic finds, including statues and earthen pots dug up from the east coast. The most important of the exhibits are unique dark gray marble plaques from the 3rd millennium BC with roughly hammered scenes of daily life: hunters, farmers, and sailors going about their business.

This museum is on the road south of the Gymnasium. It contains most of the antiquities found during excavations on the island: monumental statues of young men and women, stelae, reliefs, masks, mosaics, and ancient jewelry.

Most visitors, though, come to see the exact copy of the Venus de Milo displayed in the main room. There is a campaign, of course, to see the original statue reunited with her island home but it has so far fallen on deaf ears.

The Archaeological Museum contains a large chunk of the famed Parian chronicle, which recorded cultural events in Greece from about 1500 BC until 260 BC (another chunk is in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum). It interests scholars that the historian inscribed detailed information about artists, poets, and playwrights, completely ignoring wars and shifts in government. Some primitive pieces from the Aegean's oldest settlement, Saliagos (an islet between Paros and Antiparos), are exhibited in the same room, on the left. A small room contains Archaic finds from the ongoing excavation at Despotiko—and they are finding a lot. In the large room to the right rests a marble slab depicting the poet Archilochus in a banquet scene, lying on a couch, his weapons nearby. The ancients ranked Archilochus, who invented iambic meter and wrote the first signed love lyric, second only to Homer. When he died in battle against the Naxians, his conqueror was cursed by the oracle of Apollo for putting to rest one of the faithful servants of the muse. Also there are a monumental Nike and three superb pieces found in the last decade: a waist-down kouros, a gorgon with intact wings, and a dancing-girl relief.

On the main street, near the church, is the small Archaeological Museum; its collection includes a sundial by Andronicus of Cyrrhus, who in the 1st century BC also designed Athens's Tower of the Winds. Here, too, are Tinos's famous huge, red storage vases, from the 8th century BC.

Founded in 2002, the Cultural Foundation of Tinos, housed in a large and splendid neoclassical building at the south end of the quay, remains active in promoting the fantastic art, history, and culture of the island. The center revolves around a full schedule of traveling exhibitions, lectures, performances, and other events. It has a permanent exhibit of work by Tinian sculptor, Iannoulis Chalepas. There’s also a café.

Located in the 800-year-old Dellarocca-Barozzi house, the Domus Venetian Museum lets you into one of the historic Venetian residences. The house, enclosed within the soaring walls of Chora's castle, adjacent to the "Traini," or Great Gate, was first erected in 1207. Inside, the house is like an Naxian attic filled with fascinating objects ranging from the Cycadic period to Victorian times. The house's idyllic garden, built into the Kastro wall, provides a regular venue in season for a concert series, from classical to jazz to island music, known as the Domus festival.

Exhibits reconstruct traditional farming life with remains of an olive and wine press. There are panoramic views of the island and the surrounding seas. The adjacent church of Agios Panteliemon celebrates the feast day of Saint Panteliemon on July 27, and seemingly the whole island visits.

Housed in an 18th-century house originally built for Captain Nikolaos Malouchos, this museum exhibits a bedroom furnished and decorated in the fashion of that period. On display are looms and lace-making devices, Cycladic costumes, old photographs, and Mykoniot musical instruments that are still played at festivals.

The Folklore Museum is set in a garden full of large models of traditional windmills, dovecotes, churches, and other such famous Cycladian monuments, making for an utterly charming setting. It also showcases the lifetime hobby of fisherman Benetos Skiadas, who loves to make detailed models of ships and his scrupulous craftsmanship is on view here.

Naousa's small Folklore Museum, about 500 feet from the main town square, is in a traditional house donated by Kanstantinos and Marouso Roussos. It's run by the Music, Dance and Theatre Group of Naousa and features folk costumes from Paros and the rest of Greece. The furniture and implements are also historic.

Suitably housed in refurbished factories that helped establish the island's wealth and industrial supremacy in the 19th century, the Industrial Museum walks you through the commercial district's rise and fall. The three buildings once belonged to Katsimantis Paint, the Aneroussis Lead Factory, and the Kornilakis Tannery. A tour gives insight into how employees worked, who they worked for, and how their collective skills made Syros a bustling harbor and key European trading zone, all contributing to the island's prosperity and influence on Greece as a fledgling nation. Vintage photographs, various tools, and an exhibit of two-dozen large machines that were used until the mid-20th century also give insight into a thriving industrial center that once was.

Built in the square in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral is a small museum that showcases the history of Naxos beginning with the Mycenean era. Displays include pottery, artifacts, and even a tomb from ancient times used to cover the graves of prosperous Naxians.

Located on Manto Mavrogenous Square, the Public Art Gallery of Mykonos changes exhibitions often, giving Greek and international artists a great place to showcase their work.

The marble-working tradition of Tinos survives here from the 19th century and is going strong, as seen in the two adjacent museums: Museum Iannoulis Chalepas and Museum of Tinos Artists, which house the work of Pirgos's renowned sculptor, and other works.

This museum displays a 16th-century windmill, outdoor oven, waterwheel, wine press, and dovecote, with the intention of illustrating and preserving the traditional rural life of the island.

In an old neoclassical mansion, once destroyed in the big earthquake, the museum has an enticing collection. Pieces include ships' figureheads, seamen's chests, maritime equipment, and models which reveal the extensive nautical history of the island, Santorini's main trade until tourism took over.

This little museum shows costumes, ceramics, farming implements, and other items from Naxos's far-flung villages, giving insight into how life was on the island beginning in the 18th century.

One of Greece’s most prestigious rembetika (urban Greek folk music) artists, Markos Vamvakaris hails from Syros, making this a fitting location for a museum in his honor. The composer is a legend in Greek folklore music hailing from the 1930s and is widely known for his rembetika songs, especially the Frangosyriani. In the little museum you’ll see many of his personal items, vintage photographs, and a passport he never managed to use, all donated by his family.