By now you’re probably aware that our week’s break on the Greek island of Kos involved simply alternating days between staying at the Blue Lagoon Resort and wandering into Kos Town. Unless you haven’t been reading the previous posts in this Kos travelogue series, but what sort of lunatic would that make you!?
Yes, alternating days: one day around the pool (like the day at the hotel resort prior to this post’s account of events) and one day walking into town (like you’re just going to read, or skim past and look at the pretty pictures); and the reason for this type of holiday was just because there wasn’t a lot else to do – there’s a pandemic, people! – and we had escaped primarily to stop us going even more insane and killing even more people in another one of our classic machete mania episodes. Relaxation with occasional forays into culture was the order of the day.
After a pleasant enough breakfast we headed out of the resort with just a few distractions courtesy of one cat – there were plenty of them around the hotel – and one butterfly, which I think is a Danaus chrysippus, a relative of the Monarch butterfly that we’d more commonly see over here. Tremble at my power to educate you without you wanting me to.
We took the short route towards town. If you’ve read the previous accounts of walking into Kos from the Blue Lagoon Resort and returning back after exploring Kos Town then you’ll know that there is a longer, coastal route and a more direct route. The more direct route is perhaps not as attractive unless you prefer flat and exposed landscapes with occasional trees to the sight of the sea, but it shaves a few handfuls of minutes off the trek and it’s not without its pleasing views too. It’s also a bit more sheltered from the wind which in November had quite a bite to it.
In Kos Town we walked along the harbour front, bypassing the bar we’d been in previously only because we knew we’d be spending more time in it after some historical sights had been appreciated this day.
One sight of interest to the Instagram generation are the White Stairs of Kos, a set of stone steps leading from the harbour area towards the old town and decorated with thick white risers. Timing might be important to get the sunshine on this Kos attraction if this is the sort of place you’re thinking you absolutely must head to in order to get someone to take a photo of your back as you look away with head tilted up, touching the hat on your head with one hand and playfully tugging at your light dress with the other.
Up those steps and along a bit further brought us to Eleftherias Square, an open space with an interesting array of buildings around its sides – an indoor market and a mosque being just two – and an abundance of cats. We thought we’d seen a lot of cats in Kotor but we hadn’t seen quite so many in one place at the same time as here. As we’re cat people – smart people are, after all – this pleased us a lot.
Opposite the market was the Archaeological Museum of Kos. We are fond of a museum so we headed in. We were the only visitors which was understandable because this was outside the main tourist season even if this had been a normal year and our appearance startled the four or five members of staff who’d been busy talking and rushed to affix facemasks as we entered.
You will find no photos inside the museum here but that’s not because it wasn’t nice. Far from it, in fact; it’s a fascinating place set over two floors and packed with loads of artifacts – mostly Roman but a lot that are older too – alongside descriptions and translations that we spent ages looking over and reading. Sculptures, statues, mosaics, stone engravings, and more in a building constructed by the Italians in 1935 during their occupation and with elements of fascistic architecture in its design, seen above.
No, the reason I didn’t take any photos was because it wasn’t a particularly welcoming space. We were followed from room-to-room by one of the staff and not in that I’m-just-here-to-help-you-if-you-need-it way but more in that I’m-just-here-to-scream-at-you-if-you-think-of-touching-anything way. To be fair, I don’t have the friendliest of looks around strangers at the best of times while my wife’s resting bitch face is the sort of stuff they used to write sagas about so we might just have found a kindred spirit on the island of Kos, but there was an air of distrust that didn’t encourage seeing if I could take some snaps so I didn’t. A shame.
Despite the menace in the atmosphere I would still recommend visiting the museum when we return to The Normal Times because it is worth a good look around, and if you’re keen enough to have found this page after looking for Casa Romana information then one of the mosaic floors from it is on display and it’s a beauty.
Beyond the market hall was one more photographic feast in the form of the church, Agia Paraskevi. We didn’t go in – that fear of bursting into flames is ever-present – but it was a lovely example of orthodox design and I particularly liked the shade of blue used for the building’s domes.
A minute’s walk south from there at last brought us to the main attraction for our brains on this day in Kos Town, the Roman villa of Casa Romana. While not much to look at from outside – a fence around some bits of walls and columns outside a large, nondescript building – inside it’s a different matter.
During the Italian occupation of Kos there was a huge earthquake in 1933 that caused an immense amount of destruction. In addition to giving the Italians an excuse to redesign the layout of Kos Town and construct some new buildings to show off their own skills they undertook a series of archaeological excavations, one of which ended up unearthing this impressive villa. What you see is a recreation on the site of its original form with objects on display in situ.
Casa Romana was likely built in the second century CE but once you’re inside the vast majority of imagery and artifacts come from probably a century later. It’s all fantastic but the completeness and quality of many of the mosaic floors in particular is stunning when compared to other historical Roman and Greek sites we’ve visited over the years.
The layout of the villa is typical for the era, comprising rooms around central courtyard spaces that would provide for shelter from the sun and wind (especially the wind on Kos) as well as facilitate air flow throughout the building. Each courtyard mostly follows the same form of tiled spaces with a central water feature, and those tiled floors, again, are incredible. You can expect to see big cats and geometric patterns in surprisingly vivid colours given their age. This was a place constructed for important and wealthy people.
There’s pretty much a single route to take you through Casa Romana and following it soon brings you to the largest of the courtyards. Here, on three sides, there are two levels of the building to visit but we decided to stick just to the lower part initially, heading in one direction around the open arcade with views through the pillars into the centre of the space and a number of rooms off the area to look inside.
The rooms that we could enter were fairly spartan but each had some part of the original wall around its base and each housed at least one item of interest, whether that was a decorative piece of stone or a tiled floor or painted artwork still visible on the wall or a statue or sculpture of some description.
One ancient artifact on display in Casa Romana really stood out because of the fine detail work in the unusual red stone and the odd vertical form of it along with the serious expression on the facial features.
No, just kidding. It’s because the shadow it cast looked like a penis. I am a man-child.
Staying on the ground level of this reconstructed ancient Roman site we headed outside the villa. Here there was plenty of evidence of the original old walls and more ruins of columns and floor tiles. Inside the building it had actually been quite warm and, of course, we’d needed to wear masks, but outside it was fresher and we could breathe more easily for a bit. In addition there were toilets in a small building which one of us needed to use. There wasn’t a lot to see but it was a lovely day to simply spend around history.
We headed back into the villa and climbed the stairs to the first level of the building. In addition to some lovely views down into the atrium and a good feel for what it would have been like to live here there were a few more objects dotted around and a history of Kos and Casa Romana along one wall that was actually really interesting to read.
Whereas we’d been followed like hawks at the museum in town, here in Casa Romana we were more casually observed from a distance but there was still a small amount of keeping an eye on us that spoke volumes about trust issues. Perhaps they have a history of people misbehaving.
We left the way we came, having spent roughly half an hour exploring the historical site. The cost of entry was only a few Euros and well worth the admission price just to see the artistry in some of those tiled mosaics up close. The reconstructed main building incorporating elements of the original walls and decoration where possible was done in a very good, very sympathetic style, and the overgrown nature and dilapidated state of some areas lent it an age it didn’t technically have but which added to the whole experience.
In the next part of this Kos travelogue series I’ll cover what we got up to for the rest of the day; that’ll be spotting a couple more archaeological sites on the walk to that bar I mentioned bypassing earlier in this post, the walk back to the Blue Lagoon hotel, and some speciality dining at the Chinese restaurant at the resort complex to finish off the evening.
Love all the kitty photos – they look well-cared for despite being out on the street! And the Casa Romana looks like a wonderful site to explore. I really enjoy old mosaics and funny shadows too. 😉
Kos is definitely a cat-lover’s island. There were half a dozen stray ones looked after by the hotel we stayed at but once we walked into town it was hard to walk down a street without seeing at least one. A place that cats feel welcome in is a good place in my opinion.