Samos

Ancient Samos lay on the south-east coast, where Pythagoreio stands today. In the 6th century BC, reaching its height under the tyrant Polycrates, it was one of the richest city-states of the Greek world: in this period two teams led by the engineer Eupalinos dug a water tunnel through Mount Kastro from both ends, and a vast temple was raised to Hera. Persian conquest followed Polycrates' death; later the island held a privileged place in the Delian League and stayed loyal to Athens until the Samian War of 440 BC, when it held out against Pericles before surrendering after a long siege.

The town that is now the capital is much younger. It was built in the middle of the 18th century as the port of Vathy, the hillside village above the bay, and was first called Kato Vathy, lower Vathy. In 1834 Samos became a principality paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire, governed by a Christian prince with a senate and a chamber of deputies, and the port of Vathy became the seat of government. The town grew through the 19th century as the island's administrative centre and kept that role when Greek troops landed in March 1913 and Samos joined Greece.

The Second World War brought Italian occupation in 1941 and a famine in the winter of 1941–42 that killed 2,000 Samians. After Italy's surrender in 1943 Vathy was heavily bombed and the island passed to the Germans; the occupation ended in October 1944. In 1958 the port and Ano Vathy were joined under the name Samos. In recent years a crowded migrant camp beside the town, holding about 6,800 people in April 2020, was to be replaced by a closed reception centre near Zervou, announced that year, and a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in October 2020 damaged buildings in the town.

Samians are proud of the island's ancient names. Pythagoras was born here, as were the philosophers Epicurus and Melissus and the astronomer Aristarchus, the first known person to propose that the Earth goes round the Sun; the airport is named after him, and the town of Tigani took the name Pythagoreio in 1955. The historian Herodotus lived on Samos for a time; the Samian sculptor Theodorus is said to have helped invent the casting of statues in bronze, and Samian vases were among the most characteristic Ionian pottery of the 6th century.

The year is marked by festivals. Village saints' days and food fairs bring traditional dishes, music and dancing that lasts until the early hours. August is the busiest month: Pythagoreio re-enacts the 1824 naval battle of the Mycale Strait with fireworks on the eve of the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Heraea revives ancient music, poetry and a women's torch race, and Samos town holds its wine festival, where local groups dance in a circle, the women in the chain and the men at its ends.

The island looks across to Asia Minor. The Mycale Strait is less than two kilometres wide, and Samos has long been a crossing point between Greece and Turkey for travellers, traders and, in recent years, people seeking asylum.

Samos had 32,642 inhabitants at the 2021 census. Samos town had about 5,900 residents in the 2021 census, and over 9,000 with Ano Vathy. It is the capital of the regional unit and of the East Samos municipality, while Karlovasi is the seat of West Samos; the two municipalities were created in 2019.

The economy depends mainly on agriculture and tourism, which grew steadily from the early 1980s and peaked at the end of the 1990s. Grapes, honey, olives and olive oil, citrus fruit, dried figs, almonds and flowers are the main crops, and the Muscat grape is the main grape for wine. In 2026 the European Investment Bank approved financing to connect the north-east Aegean islands to the Greek electricity grid.

Samos town is the place of government offices, the main port and year-round shops, with houses climbing in tiers from the quay to the old lanes of Ano Vathy. Karlovasi has a younger feel thanks to its university students. Life slows after the summer season, but the towns stay inhabited all year, and village festivals keep people moving around the island.

Wine has defined Samos since antiquity, when Samian wine was already well known. A great part of the island is covered with vineyards of Muscat grapes, and the sweet Samos Muscat, sold as Samos Vin Doux, is a popular dessert wine exported around the world; Nectar and Anthemis, the latter aged five years before bottling, are the superior bottlings. The wine cooperatives' August festival in Samos town pours all of them.

The island's listed specialities include bourekia, its version of börek, the family of pastries made with a thin, flaky dough such as filo and fillings such as cheese; katimeria; armogalo cheese; tiganites, listed as pancakes, while the village of Mytilinii holds a festival of tiganita, fried dough; and moustalevria, a pudding of grape must mixed with flour and boiled until thick. Honey, olive oil, dried figs and almonds come from the island's farms.

Eating out centres on the seafront of Samos town, with tavernas serving typical Greek food alongside pizzerias, on the harbour of Pythagoreio, home of a fishermen's festival, and on the student-filled squares of Karlovasi.