Chóra - Deftéra Parousía - Agios Nikólaos and back

Evaluation: This short hike goes through a very dry landscape and it brings you to the neglected little church of Agios Nikólaos. It might be an interesting hike for those of you who are looking for an alternative route to Petoúsis – you can then continue to Livádi and Katérgo. It gets an evaluation of *.

Estimated time: Both the way out and the return route will only cost you some 35 minutes.

Route description: (0h00) On the fourth little square, the Platía Maráki, you walk to the north, in the direction of the road to Ano Meriá. At the café El Greco you continue straight on and in this way you walk between the hotels Fani Vevis and Fata Morgana. One minute further you take the first concrete road going up on the left (signpost to Horizon Hotel). This road becomes a gravel road and after 4 minutes it gets to the right of the last new houses. Over there you find the beginning of the trail, between diverging walls.
By following the right wall you easily reach a gravel road, which you follow up.
You proceed straight ahead until you arrive at the very simple chapel with a flat roof of Deftéra Parousía (= The Last Judgement).

(0h16) You follow the gravel road for another 2 minutes; the landscape is dreary already, but now you reach an even more desolate spot with heaps of stones and stone quarries.
However, between two trees and a wall you find a pretty and reddish brown rocky trail (there is also a cairn). You get to a depression between two hills (on your right you see the Agios Eleftherios, 414 m high): the path seems to become rather vague, but you stay in the beginning of a little valley; you then continue on the left side of this valley – the path has become much clearer now. Down on the right you can already distinguish your objective – slightly further down the trail splits up, indeed, and you take a right.

(0h26) A little later, the monopáti is really beautiful for a while and the heavy bordering stones are still clearly visible. Thereafter, the path just continues again. You reach the right-hand side of a wall and a little later you also walk between two walls; you keep following the left wall, though. You then get between two walls again – you are in fact walking in the bed of a river.
There is quite a bit of green here, which is exceptional at Folégandros, with even some terraces with olive trees. You then reach the left of the church and finally you arrive at the gravel road. (0h35)

[On the left, the gravel road goes to the hamlet of Petoúsis, a walk of about 15 minutes.]

The church itself is neglected and closed; it is almost dug into the terrain and you also notice a lot of goats. Probably, there used to be three aisles, but one seems to have collapsed.

(0h35) The return route follows the same trails, and it is quite straightforward. At first, the path runs in the bed of the river, but after some 5 minutes you have to watch out. At the same height of a terrace with an olive tree on the left, the trail goes to the right, away from the valley – you should follow the right wall and then you easily get to the reddish brown trail.

(0h40) You keep following the right wall and you then walk between the wall and a stone fence for a short while. Further down, the right wall curves to the right; over here you SHOULD NOT follow the path that seems to curve alongside the wall – instead you go straight ahead. There is a cairn and in front of you, you can clearly see the reddish brown track continuing on the slope.

(0h54) You follow the road straight on: the Panagía-church appears far away in front of you and after a few minutes you also see Chóra. About 2-3 minutes later you pass the chapel of Deftéra Parousía. The other side of the island also appears: the views on Chóra with the islands of Sífnos (on the left) and the group consisting of Despotikó, Antíparos and Páros in the sea really make up for the desolate landscape.
A little further you see the track of the ancient path on the left of the road – you thus leave the gravel road and you continue on this path. You then walk between the two converging walls and you reach the first houses of Chóra. You arrive at a gravel road, which curves somewhat to the left at first, and which then turns into concrete. You thus easily get to the asphalt road, which you follow to the right, to the centre of Chóra. (1h10)