Egina
Around the middle of the 6th century BC, while much of the Greek world still traded goods by weight, the inhabitants of Aegina wer...
Updated 10 July 2026
Egina
This season · July · Summer
What to do in Egina now
The story
The story of Egina
A maritime power in the shadow of Athens
Aegina's history begins long before Athens became the centre of the Greek world. In the archaic age the island was a leading trading port, with a fleet capable of controlling routes to Egypt and the Levant: its silver coin, the turtle, became a benchmark standard for trade throughout the Aegean. This prosperity fuelled a fierce rivalry with neighbouring Athens, which in the 5th century BC, during the Peloponnesian War, did not hesitate to expel the entire Aeginetan population and replace it with its own colonists, putting an end once and for all to the island's political independence. From then on Aegina followed the fortunes of the powers that succeeded one another in the Aegean — Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, Ottomans — while keeping its maritime vocation intact.
From pirates to mountains: Aegina's Middle Ages
Between the 9th and 10th centuries, raids by Saracen pirates made the coast too dangerous a place to live: the population moved inland and founded a new settlement perched on a hilltop, away from the eyes of passing raiders. This is how Paleochora was born, which for almost a thousand years was the administrative and religious heart of the island, protected by a Byzantine castle of which only ruins remain. Only after the war of independence, with the sea finally safe, did the inhabitants come back down to the coast, giving rise to the port town we see today and leaving behind an entire settlement that no one would ever repopulate.
1828: when Aegina was the capital of Greece
In January 1828 Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first governor of independent Greece, chose Aegina as the provisional seat of the new state, while waiting for Athens and Nafplio to be made secure. For about a year the island hosted the country's first administrative bodies: here the first coins of modern Greece, the phoenix, were minted, and here the first national orphanage arose, still visible today in the neoclassical building near the harbour. It was a brief but formative episode, one that the people of Aegina recall with pride, and it explains the density of elegant nineteenth-century buildings concentrated in what is, all things considered, a small town centre.
The Temple of Aphaia
On the pine-covered hill in the north-east of the island stands the Doric temple dedicated to Aphaia, a local pre-Hellenic deity later assimilated with Artemis, built around 500 BC on the remains of an older sanctuary. It is one of the best-preserved temples in all of mainland and insular Greece, with twenty-four columns still standing, and it is famous for being one of the three points of a hypothetical sacred triangle traced together with the Parthenon in Athens and the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, all visible from one another on clear days. The carved pediments, now kept at the Glyptothek in Munich, depicted episodes from the Trojan War.
Paleochora, the town time left behind
Abandoned after 1826, Paleochora is today an almost surreal site: no houses remain, but dozens of Byzantine and post-Byzantine chapels are scattered across a bare slope, some still bearing traces of frescoes, reachable only on foot along dirt paths. Around thirty religious buildings survive out of an original number much higher, testimony to a community that, isolated from the danger of pirates, had made devotion one of the few luxuries available. The climb, silent and free of intrusive tourist signage, offers one of the most authentic experiences in the whole Saronic Gulf.
The harbour and the little church of Agios Nikolaos
Aegina's quay is probably the island's most reproduced image: brightly coloured fishing caiques moored beside stalls of pistachios, and closing the scene, the small church of Agios Nikolaos, with its white and blue dome right on the water's edge. It is not an imposing monument, but its position, framed by boats and the comings and goings of ferries, has made it as recognisable a symbol as the windmills of Mykonos. Around it, the modern town preserves neoclassical nineteenth-century buildings, a direct legacy of the period when Aegina was capital.
Kolona, the column that looks out to sea
Just north of the harbour, on a small promontory, stands a single surviving Doric column of the Temple of Apollo, which gave its name to the archaeological site of Kolona: from here, in the archaic age, the ancient city of Aegina extended, with its walls, necropolis and acropolis. The excavations, still ongoing, have yielded pottery and structures from several overlapping periods, while the small archaeological museum next to the site tells the sequence of occupations from the Bronze Age to Roman times. It is the point where the island's commercial history, that of the turtle coins, can be touched with your own hands.
Aegina's pistachios, the island's green gold
Introduced in the nineteenth century, the pistachio found in Aegina a volcanic soil and an ideal microclimate, to the point of becoming the main pillar of the local economy and earning protected designation of origin as Fistiki Aeginis. In September, during the harvest, sacks of pistachios literally invade the harbour, sold loose, roasted, ground into paste for ice cream or distilled into liqueur. The agricultural landscape of the interior, made of neat rows and drying huts, is as much a part of the island's identity as its ancient temples.
Agia Marina, Perdika and Souvala: the island's three faces
Aegina is not confined to its port town. Agia Marina, on the eastern side below the Temple of Aphaia, is the most touristy area, with sandy beaches and family-run hotels. Perdika, on the southern tip, has remained a fishing village, with a row of fish taverns facing the islet of Moni, an ideal destination for a leisurely lunch. Souvala, to the north, is instead known for its sulphurous thermal springs, frequented since antiquity for their healing properties, and for an even slower, more local pace of life.
Amid pine groves, dry-stone walls and rocky coastline
Aegina's landscape alternates fragrant pine groves, like the one that envelops the Temple of Aphaia, with terraces planted with pistachio and olive trees, down to a predominantly rocky coast broken by small sandy bays. Mount Oros, the island's highest point at 532 metres, once housed at its summit a sanctuary dedicated to Zeus Hellanios and is today a destination for hikes with views that, on clear days, reach as far as the Peloponnese. The absence of large hotel chains has preserved a rare balance between agricultural vocation and tourism so close to Athens.
- Strolling at sunset along the harbour promenade among the fishing boats
- Climbing up to the Temple of Aphaia and, weather permitting, looking onward towards Cape Sounion
- Walking among the abandoned churches of Paleochora
- Tasting Aegina's pistachio ice cream straight from a local roastery
- Having a fish lunch in Perdika, with a view of the islet of Moni
- Bathing in the thermal springs of Souvala
When to go and how to experience the island
Spring, from April to June, and early autumn, September and October, are the best times: pleasant temperatures, clear light, and the chance to witness the pistachio harvest at the end of summer. Summer brings full bookings on weekends, thanks to the proximity to Athens, but on weekdays it remains manageable. Aegina lends itself perfectly to a day trip from Piraeus, but it also deserves an extra night to enjoy Paleochora early in the morning, when the site is deserted, or a leisurely dinner in Perdika with no rush to catch the hydrofoil back.
FAQ
Quanto tempo serve per visitare Egina?
Come si arriva ad Egina dal Pireo?
Egina è adatta a una gita con bambini?
Ci si sposta bene senza auto?
Dove si mangia meglio a Egina?
Getting there
- Aeroporto Internazionale di Atene "Eleftherios Venizelos", circa 1 ora e 30 minuti tra trasferimento al Pireo e traversata
- Non essendo collegata da ponte, Egina si raggiunge solo via mare: dal porto del Pireo con aliscafi Flying Dolphin (circa 40 minuti) o traghetti convenzionali (circa 1 ora e 10 minuti).
- Nei weekend estivi le corse si riempiono rapidamente: conviene prenotare il biglietto del traghetto con un giorno di anticipo, soprattutto per la partenza serale di rientro.
Perfect for
Dal tempio dorico di Afaia alla città fantasma di Paleochora, fino all'anno da capitale della Grecia moderna.
I pistacchi DOP dell'isola, protagonisti di gelati, dolci e liquori venduti direttamente sul porto.
La distanza minima dal Pireo la rende la meta ideale per chi ha poco tempo ma vuole vera atmosfera greca.
Perdika e Souvala offrono taverne di pesce e coste rocciose lontane dal turismo di massa.
To see
