Zakynthos · self-guided walk

Zakynthos Town: poets, saints and squares

From Solomos Square through the museums and churches of the rebuilt capital to the pilgrimage church of St Dionysios by the harbour.

8 stops · 2.6 km · about 90 min

Distance and time are our curators' estimates for the whole walk, stops included.

The stops

The short version of each stop. In aiGuide, open Zakynthos, choose “Zakynthos Town: poets, saints and squares” and tap Begin walking tour; then lock your phone, and each story starts as you reach the stop.

1. 1Plateia Solomou

   Rebuilt after the 1953 Ionian earthquake

   

   You are standing in the front room of Zakynthos Town — a wide marble square open to the harbour, ringed by the Byzantine Museum, the cultural centre, and the Venetian-era church of St Nicholas of the Mole. The statue in the middle is Dionysios Solomos, the poet who gave Greece its national anthem.

   • Named for Dionysios Solomos, author of the Hymn to Liberty
   • Laid out anew after the 12 August 1953 earthquake

   Open in OpenStreetMap

2. 2Agios Nikolaos tou Molou

   Venetian period, 1561

   

   This modest stone church is the oldest thing on the square around you. Built in 1561 by the guild of sailors on a tiny islet by the harbour mole, it later fused with the shore — and it is where the young Dionysios, the island's patron saint, served as a priest.

   • Built in 1561 by the sailors' guild on a harbour islet
   • One of the few town buildings to survive the 1953 earthquake

   Open in OpenStreetMap

3. 3Vyzantino Mouseio Zakynthou

   Collection 12th-19th centuries; museum opened 1960

   

   Inside this building is what was rescued when the island's churches came down in 1953. Whole carved and gilded iconostases were pulled from the rubble and re-erected here, alongside icons of the Ionian school — the point where Byzantine tradition met Venetian painting.

   • Houses church art salvaged after the 1953 earthquake
   • Rich in Heptanese-school icons blending Orthodox and Venetian styles

   Open in OpenStreetMapWikidata record

4. 4Mouseio Solomou kai Epifanon Zakynthion

   Founded 1959; collections 18th-19th centuries

   

   Two of Greece's great poets lie here, in the square where revolution once caught fire. Downstairs are the tombs of Dionysios Solomos and Andreas Kalvos; upstairs, portraits and relics of the island aristocracy that produced them both.

   • Holds the tombs of poets Dionysios Solomos and Andreas Kalvos
   • Solomos's remains returned from Corfu in 1865

   Open in OpenStreetMapWikidata record

5. 5Agios Markos (Katholiki Ekklisia)

   Venetian foundation, 16th century; rebuilt after 1953

   

   A Catholic church in an Orthodox land is a Venetian signature. St Mark's has stood on this square in some form since the 16th century, serving the Italian-speaking families of Venetian Zante — and its square became the town's stage for revolution in 1797.

   • The island's Catholic church, dedicated to Venice's patron saint
   • Zakynthos was Venetian from 1484 to 1797

   Open in OpenStreetMapWikidata record

6. 6Archontiko Roma

   Noble house, 17th-19th centuries; rebuilt after 1953

   Step through this doorway and you are in the Zante that vanished in 1953 — a noble family's town house with its library, portraits and salons intact. The Roma family produced statesmen and writers, and their home is the last of its kind in town.

   • House-museum of the aristocratic Roma family
   • The family was enrolled in Zante's Libro d'Oro of nobles

   Open in OpenStreetMapWikidata record

7. 7Mouseio Grigoriou Xenopoulou

   19th-20th centuries

   This modest house belonged to Grigorios Xenopoulos, the writer who put ordinary Greek families on the page and stage. Novelist, playwright, and founder of a beloved children's magazine, he grew up in Zakynthos and set much of his best work here.

   • Dedicated to novelist and playwright Grigorios Xenopoulos (1867-1951)
   • He edited the children's magazine I Diaplasis ton Paidon

   Open in OpenStreetMapWikidata record

8. 8Ieros Naos Agiou Dionysiou

   Completed late 1940s; saint lived 1547-1622

   

   You are approaching the spiritual centre of the island. Inside this church rest the relics of St Dionysios, the saint who forgave his brother's murderer; its bell tower quotes the campanile of Venice, and the building itself famously rode out the 1953 earthquake.

   • Holds the relics of St Dionysios, patron of Zakynthos
   • The saint forgave and sheltered his own brother's murderer

   Open in OpenStreetMapWikidata record

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