06 Jun Skopelos Island

Skopelos is the greenest island in Greece. Here, where the green of the pine-trees and the dense forest mix with the deep blue of sea and sky, creating the picture of unrivalled nature beauty, you will find yourself in an idyllic land, in a small paradise in the very heart of Greece. In island legend Skopelos was founded byStaphylos or Staphylus (Greek for grape), one of the sons of the god Dionysos and the Princess Ariadne of Crete. Historically, in the Late Bronze Age Skopelos, then known as Peparethos (Πεπάρηθος) or Peparethus, was colonised by Cretans who introduced viticulture to the island.

Perhaps because of the legend of its founding by the son of the god of wine, the island was known throughout the ancient Greek cities of the Mediterranean Sea for its wine. The play Philoctetes (first performed at the Festival of Dionysus in 409 BC) by Sophocles includes a wine merchant lost on his way to “Peparethos – rich in grapes and wine”.