Paraportiani is not one church but five, built against and around each other between the 15th and 17th centuries in the Kastro quarter of Chora. The result is an asymmetric, organically accumulated white mass that looks like architecture imagined rather than planned — curves and angles flowing into each other with no visible logic and remarkable overall coherence. It is one of the most photographed buildings in Greece and, when seen in person rather than in photographs, genuinely justifies the attention.
The Structure
The lowest of the five chapels — the chapel of Agios Sotis — was built first, in the 15th century, incorporated into the base of the old Kastro gate (hence the name: ‘paraportiani’ means ‘beside the gate’). Over the following two centuries, four more chapels were added at different heights and angles, each built against the previous ones using the existing walls as support.
The result is structurally idiosyncratic: the chapels share walls, roofs serve as floors for chapels above, and the external form bears little relationship to the internal organization. The whitewash that covers the entire complex — renewed regularly by the local community — unifies the disparate parts into a single visual object.
Visiting
Paraportiani is a functioning religious site. The external view is available at all times and requires nothing more than walking to the Kastro quarter of Chora. The interior of the main chapel is open at irregular hours, typically in the morning and for religious services; there is no fixed schedule and no fee.
The best external photographs are taken from the harbor side, at the water’s edge below the Kastro — the church appears above the seawall. From this angle, in early morning light, the complex reads as a single organic form against the sky.
Practical Tips
- Morning is significantly better than any other time — the crowd of photographers that arrives from 10am onward makes it difficult to see the building as anything other than a photographic subject.
- The interior, when open, is very small — space for perhaps 20 people. It contains a small iconostasis and votive offerings but is not architecturally significant inside. The exterior is the point.
- The Kastro neighborhood around Paraportiani is worth spending 20–30 minutes in regardless of the church — the oldest streets in Chora are here.