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Modern Description: The modern port of Kamariótissa occupies the site of the ancient landing-place of Demetrion, and has only recently been made practicable year-round by the construction of a breakwater affording protection from the prevailing north winds. The former name, ‘Demetrion', may derive from the fact that the undulating plain that stretches two or three kilometres to its east and southeast is the principal granary of the island – a gentle and fertile area where cereals are cultivated. These beautiful fields are scattered with grazing horses and solitary spreading oak trees – in some seasons resembling uncannily a landscape by Stubbs or Gainsborough. At the time of the renovation of the port's principal Church of the Panaghia in 1938, the remains of a late 5th century basilica were found beneath. According to the Book of Acts (16.11), St. Paul put in at Samothrace overnight on his way to Neapolis (Kavala) in 49 or 50 AD.

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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