The Chapel on the Rock

It is the picture that sells the island: a white chapel on a sheer rock, sea on three sides, a stair cut into the cliff.

What it is

Agios Ioannis Kastri, on the northeast coast, perched on a crag roughly 100 metres above the water. It is a small working chapel - services happen, weddings happen, and it can be closed when they do. The stair is carved and railed, and the top is a tiny courtyard with a view that does the rest of the work.

The steps nobody agrees on

Published counts range from 106 to 198 to 223, depending where the count begins and who did the counting; there is no official number and we are not going to invent one. What is consistent: it is a steep few minutes, fully exposed to the sun, with a handrail. Most reasonably mobile visitors manage it; anyone with knees, vertigo or a midday slot should think twice. Early morning and late afternoon are cooler and better lit.

Book a day that times the climb well →

Manners

Shoulders and knees covered - it is a church, and the request is posted. Keep voices down if anyone is inside. Drones are unwelcome and often prohibited outright at religious sites here. And if a wedding is underway, the answer is simply another day.

Getting there

By road it is about 40 minutes from Skopelos Town to the parking area below, then the climb. Most visitors arrive on a guided day that times the stop away from the worst heat and crowds; boat trips from Skiathos pass beneath it and photograph it from the water instead - spectacular, but no climb and no courtyard.