Psara

Psara is a small, rocky island in the north-eastern Aegean, lying off the north-west coast of Chios, to which it belongs administratively. Bare, windswept and thinly populated today, it holds a place in Greek history out of all proportion to its size. In the years before the War of Independence, Psara was one of the three great maritime powers of the Aegean, alongside Hydra and Spetses, with a large merchant fleet and thousands of inhabitants. Its ships and fireship captains, most famously Konstantinos Kanaris, played a decisive part in the naval war against the Ottomans.

That prominence brought catastrophe. In 1824 an Ottoman force overwhelmed the island, and in the ensuing massacre and enslavement the population was all but wiped out, an event seared into the national memory by Dionysios Solomos's famous couplet on the island's blackened ridge. The Mavri Rachi, or Black Ridge, where the last defenders blew themselves up rather than surrender, is marked by a monument and remains a place of pilgrimage. The whole island still feels like a memorial.

Today only a few hundred people live here, almost all in the single harbour village. Life is quiet and unhurried, the pace set by the arrival of the ferry. Above the port stands the monastery of the Dormition of the Virgin, and the island's austere, treeless landscape is scattered with churches and the ruins of grander times. For all its sombre history, Psara has genuine appeal for the traveller who wants emptiness: clear, uncrowded beaches such as Lakka, Limnos and Katsouni lie within reach of the village, and the swimming is superb.

There is little organised tourism, few rooms and only a handful of tavernas, so a visit is about history, solitude and honest island hospitality rather than comfort or nightlife.

Go to Psara to stand where the revolution's heroes stood and to enjoy some of the emptiest beaches in the Aegean. Summer brings the calmest seas and the most reliable boats; a couple of days suffices for most.