Platýs Gialós - Panagía Vrýsis - Kástro
Evaluation: This
hike offers a beautiful connection between the beach of Platýs Gialós and the
magnificent town of Kástro. The first part of the hike passes underneath the
monastery of Panagía tou Vounoú, which you can visit if you want to. Halfway you
pass the monastery of Panagía Vrýsis, which has a wonderful ikonostási and which
is definitely worth a visit. The second half of the trip consists of a beautiful
path with great views on Kastro all the way. We give this hike an evaluation of
***. Passionate hikers can continue this hike to Panagía Pouláti and Artemónas,
as described in the second part of the hike from Apollonía via Kástro to
Artemónas...
Estimated time:
The actual walking time is 1h15 to the monastery of Panagía Vrýsis and it is
then 1 hour (AWT) to Kástro. This total AWT of 2h15, a walk of 7,21 km, means a
total walking time (TWT) of some 5 hours. But of course you can spend some
relaxing hours, either before in Platýs Gialós, or at the end of the hike in
Kástro.
Route description:
(0h00) In Platýs Gialós,
you should get off the bus at the 4th or 3rd stop: the start of the walk is
located between the two stops, near a small road that runs towards the interior
of the country.
Starting from stop 4, you walk back for 3 minutes and then take a small concrete
roadth towards the interior of the country, in the bed of a small river (hiking
piquet [3] Vrýsis 1h50 / 4,3
km / Apollonía 2h50 / 7 km).
You follow this road for 6 minutes, the concrete changes to gravel and a little
further you veer right (=) to follow a nice and wide dirt path between walls
(=).
(0h15) After 4-5 minutes, you get to a small road, you go left for a
short time (=), but after 40 meters already you take a beautiful old path on the
right between walls (=) and next to
a water pipe.
You now are heading towards the monastery of tou
Vounoú.
After 3 minutes you begin to climb
and after another 4 minutes you get to a small road, paved with large stones.
A minute later, you continue
straight next to a cistern, on a concrete road (hiking piquet), but after
another minute, the path starts straight again (=).
Another 2 minutes later you continue straight (=) with the water pipe on a
narrow path, which soon becomes a beautiful old path again.
You now follow black plastic water pipes almost to the end and you always climb,
to the right of a very green valley: soon you even see aqueducts and you hear -
in spring - the water flowing.
You continue, without realizing it, underneath the monastery of Panagía tou
Vounoú and you follow the following 20 minutes some flat paths and also steeper
stretches with stairs - and finally, about 45 minutes after you started, you get
to the asphalt road that comes from Platýs Gialós.
[You could follow the road to the right for 4 minutes: there you will find a
small asphalt road to the right (there is a sign), which arrives after 8 minutes
near the small monastery of Panagía tou Vounoú, with its
beautiful shaded courtyard.
The church itself is almost always
closed.
Afterwards, you will have to
retrace your steps, to where the path from Platýs Gialós gets to the main road.]
(0h44) You follow the asphalt road to the left (=) for a few minutes,
with, on your left, a beautiful view of the hill of Agios Andreas.
Already after 4-5 minutes, 50 m
after a sign that indicates the direction of some apartments, you come across a
path to the left, with a nice watering hole next to it with a tap without water
(hiking piquet).
(0h49) This is a beautiful trail, which climbs constantly for the next 11
minutes - the blue plastic water pipe serves as your guide.
After 4 minutes you turn right and
after another 3 minutes you veer left;
the following route is really
beautiful and continues almost flat around a valley.
(1h01) After 11-12 beautiful minutes, a nice paved section begins – you
can see the islands of Folegandros and Síkinos on the right, and Páros is in
front of you.
You continue and in this way you reach a nice
crossroads – this is Thólos.
(1h04) There is a hiking piquet: to the left Vrýsis 15' / Apollonía 1h15
– to the right Chryssopigí 1h20.
You turn left (=) and a little
further you veer right (=), still on a beautiful pavement.
You veer right again and you now
follow a nice flat section.
(1h11) Just next to the heliport, you get to a gravel road and a little
further on asphalt (hiking piquet to the right Vrýsis 5' / Apollonía 1h05 /
Kástro 1h05 - straight ahead Agios Andréas 45'
).
So you take a right on the asphalt
and concrete road: You veer right around the heliport, then left and you keep
left to go down a staircase to the monastery of Panagía Vrýsis.
You go through the massive door and find yourselves
in the courtyard.
(1h16)
The monastery from the 15th
century looks like a fortress, but inside it is really beautiful, with a nice
ikonostási from the 17th century.
(1h16)
After your visit you go left outside the door and continue down on the broad
steps to the road to Fáros - in front you can already see Kástro, at the end of
the valley that you will follow later on - and you walk to the left for about
180 metres. A little road off the left goes to the heliport and to the hamlet of
Symbópoula. Just past this road there is a bridge and then a path off the right,
on the right hand side of a house with a large garden (hiking piquet and there
is also a sign to Kástro).
This is really a wonderful trail and almost immediately you can see Kastro
straight in front of you. Looking back you have a great view on the large
monastery of Vrýsis.
After 5 minutes there is a trail going down on the right – this only leads to a
small church. You just continue straight on the beautiful and large trail,
passing another path off the right and then a neglected path off the left. You
walk almost flatly on this nice and broad path.
(1h32) You get to a rocky three-forked-junction (hiking picket
[1] Kástro 45' / 2,1 km /
Artemónas 2h05 / 5,2 km:,
you have to go down to the right - from now on the path is marked by [1].
The descent is fairly steep and you pass next to two chapels; after some 8
minutes you cross the bed of the river – on the 30th of June 2019, there was
still some water...
(1h40)
You climb up for a couple of
minutes and you then continue on a very beautiful trail in the direction of
Kástro.
This path continues almost
flatly for about 15 minutes: underneath to the left you see a chapel with a
round roof, a chapel with a flat roof and a pigeon tower.
(1h18)
After 15 minutes, you reach a
crossroads, to the left of some vertical stones: it is here that a path leads to
the right which could lead
you
to Fáros.
You continue of
course straight (=),
you start the descent, which
becomes much steeper the last 5 minutes - left in the valley
you
notice a beautiful little church with dome.
(2h07)
After a few more minutes, you
reach the junction with the hike [2] (hiking picket [2] Fáros 1h35 / 3,9 km and
[1] Kástro 10 '/ 0,4 km / Artemónas 1h25 / 3, 4 km) and
you continue straight.
You continue going down for the next two minutes until you reach the valley.
Below, you go left and then right for a moment: in front of you, you see the
staircase to Kástro.
The staircase crosses the asphalt road to Seralia after a couple of minutes and
some 100 steps.
Straight ahead you take the staircase painted in white and in this way you reach
the square next to the bus stop, after another 140 steps. You are now at the
gates of Kástro, near the entrance to the fortified village (hiking picket).
(2h17)
Nearby you find the
beautiful terrace of To Konáki; in the bakery of the same name, a little further
down, you can buy delicious amygdalótes,
which is the local speciality. It is also great to take some rest on the terrace
of the restaurant To Astro,
a little further up and to the left – over there you should go and try a 'pikilía'
(little snacks) with the tirokeftédes (cheese balls), the saganáki (fried
cheese) and the melitzanosaláta (a salad of eggplant)...
Gpx-files:
https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/sifnos-platys-gialos-panagia-vrysis-kastro-124066683
https://www.routeyou.com/en/route/view/12052972/hiking-route/sifnos-platys-gialos-panagia-vrysis-kastro