Kos

The town of Kos was founded in 366 BC, when the island's capital moved from Astypalaea, near today's Kefalos, to a new city laid out on a Hippodamian grid by the harbour. Kos had long been settled by Dorians and was a member of the Doric Hexapolis with the cities of Rhodes. It flourished under the Ptolemies of Egypt, who used it as a naval base and a place to educate their princes; Ptolemy II was born here. The town became a centre of learning and of justice, sending judges to settle disputes across the Greek world, and the Asklepieion, the sanctuary of the healing god Asclepius, drew pilgrims. Hippocrates is thought to have been born on the island, and Paul stopped here briefly.

Genoese protection and the Knights Hospitaller followed, and in 1315 the Knights began the castle at the harbour entrance. In January 1523, after the fall of Rhodes, the castle was handed over to the Ottomans, who left the Greeks to live in suburbs outside it. A Russian landing party sent to capture the castle in August 1773 failed.

Italy occupied the island in 1912. After the earthquake of 23 April 1933 destroyed much of the old town, the architect Rodolfo Petracco drew up a new plan, turning the ruined quarters into an archaeological park. In the Second World War the Germans won the Battle of Kos in 1943 and then executed about 100 Italian officers who refused to join them; nearly 100 members of the island's Jewish community were deported on 23 July 1944. Kos joined Greece in 1947.

Kos lives with Hippocrates. The plane tree where he is said to have taught stands in front of the castle, the airport is named after him, and the International Hippocratic Foundation and its museum keep up the link between the island and medicine. The Asklepieion, excavated in 1902 by Rudolf Herzog, is the island's most famous site.

The town mixes the layers of its history. Ottoman mosques, among them the Loggia Mosque of the late 18th century, stand beside the plane tree and the Knights' walls; the Italian years left a planned centre and the 1935 synagogue, whose interior the municipality and the Jewish communities commissioned to be restored in 2022 for both worship and cultural use. In the late 1920s about 3,700 Turks lived in Kos town, nearly half its people; today a community of about 2,000 remains, especially in the village of Platani. The Orthodox metropolis of Kos answers directly to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The island has given its name to more than history: Cos lettuce, or romaine, is said to have originated here. The comic playwright Epicharmus was born at Astypalea, the island's ancient capital, the Hellenistic poet Philitas made his home here, and the early recording star Marika Papagika was born on Kos in 1890. The 1968 film Signs of Life was shot on the island.

The town had 19,432 inhabitants at the 2011 census, and the island 37,089 at the 2021 census, the second largest population in the Dodecanese after Rhodes. Kos town is the port, the seat of the municipality and the island's tourist and cultural centre.

Tourism is the main industry, built on the beaches. The island's hotel stock has shifted sharply upmarket: between 2014 and 2023 the number of five-star hotels nearly doubled while one- and two-star hotels declined. Farming comes second, with grapes, almonds, figs, watermelons, olives and tomatoes, along with wheat and corn. The airport, run by Fraport, is busiest in summer with charter flights from Germany and Britain.

Life follows the tourist season: the harbour, marina and bar street are crowded from late spring to autumn, while winter is quieter. It is also one of several Greek islands with a closed controlled-access centre for refugees and migrants, with a stated capacity of 2,140. The earthquake of 1933, which reshaped the town, is a reminder that the area is seismically active.

Kos is a farming island as well as a holiday one. Its fields and orchards produce grapes, almonds, figs, watermelons, olives and tomatoes, with wheat and corn, and in antiquity the island was famous for its wines. Cos lettuce, the long-leaved lettuce known in North America as romaine, is said to have come from the island and takes its name from it.

In the inland villages, small tavernas serve local recipes with the island's own wine, made with produce from the surrounding farms. In Kos town the restaurants and cafés gather around the old harbour, the marina and the streets of the old town, where everything from simple gyros to full taverna meals is on offer to visitors arriving off the ferries.

Seafood is part of island life too, from the fishing boats of Mastichari's little harbour to the tavernas along the coast. Evenings in summer stretch late, with meals followed by drinks in the bars of the town centre or Kardamaina.