Pagostas

Character and identity

Tucked into the Byzantine citadel of Chora, in the shadow of the fortified monastery of Saint John, Pagostas is a three-bedroom guesthouse inside a 1597 mansion once owned by the abbot Parthenios Pagostas. A sensitive 2022 restoration by fashion consultant Maria Lemos and her husband Gregoris Kambouroglou stripped the house back to its essentials: thick stone walls, terracotta floors, an arched jasmine-scented courtyard, and bedrooms with windows framing the white roofs of Chora and the Aegean beyond. There is no restaurant, no spa, no front desk. The register is that of a private home lent by stylish friends, with breakfast served wherever you like and aperitivo on the roof terrace.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What you are really paying for is access: a private house inside Chora's citadel, restored with rare restraint, run with the intimacy of a friend's summer place. Book the whole house if you can, take the Mezzanine Room if you cannot, and come in shoulder or low season when rates drop sharply and the island sheds its August crowds.