Agia Paraskevi

Agia Paraskevi is a small Orthodox chapel on the island of Naxos, dedicated to Saint Paraskevi, one of the most venerated female martyrs in the Greek Orthodox tradition. Chapels of this kind are a defining feature of the Cycladic landscape — modest in scale, locally maintained, and quietly significant to the communities around them.

What to Expect

Like most rural Naxian chapels, Agia Paraskevi is a whitewashed stone structure, likely single-aisled, with an iconostasis separating the nave from the sanctuary. Expect a simple, unadorned interior with oil lamps, an icon of the saint, and the particular stillness that these small places of worship tend to hold. The chapel sits at coordinates 37.0615°N, 25.4935°E, placing it in the southern-central part of Naxos, in an area of quiet countryside away from the main tourist corridors.

The feast day of Saint Paraskevi falls on 26 July. If you visit around that date, there is a good chance the chapel will be open and a small local panegyri — the traditional Orthodox festival combining liturgy and communal celebration — may be held nearby.

How to Get There

The chapel's coordinates place it south of Naxos Town (Chora), in the interior of the island. From Naxos Town, head south on the main road toward Pyrgaki, then navigate toward the coordinates using a GPS app or Google Maps. The terrain in this part of Naxos can involve narrow, unpaved tracks, so a vehicle with reasonable ground clearance is helpful. On foot, the surrounding landscape is walkable but distances from any village center can be significant — plan accordingly.

Tips for Visiting

• Dress modestly. Shoulders and knees should be covered when entering any Orthodox chapel. A light scarf or sarong carried in a bag solves this quickly.
• Try the door, but expect it to be locked. Small rural chapels on Naxos are often locked outside of feast days and Sunday services. The exterior and the setting are still worth the detour.
• Bring water. The area is rural and there are no nearby facilities confirmed at this location.
• Visit on or around 26 July if you want a genuine chance of finding the chapel open and active, as Saint Paraskevi's feast day is when these small churches come to life.
• Use offline maps. Mobile signal can be intermittent in the Naxos interior; download the area to Google Maps or Maps.me before you leave Chora.

The History

Saint Paraskevi was a 2nd-century Christian martyr from Rome, and her name in Greek means "preparation" — a reference to Good Friday in the Orthodox liturgical calendar. She is venerated across Greece as a protector of eyesight and a healer, and chapels dedicated to her are found on nearly every Greek island. On Naxos, which has one of the richest concentrations of Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches in the Cyclades, chapels like this one form part of a landscape that has been continuously inhabited and worshipped in for well over a thousand years. The specific founding date of this chapel is not documented in available sources, but the tradition of small, community-built chapels on Naxos stretches back to the Byzantine period.