Tour Serifos, the wild child of the Cyclades

Serifos is the wild child of the Cyclades. Steep mountainsides soar above rocky bays, forming jagged peaks that plunge back down again into deep green valleys. These rugged landscapes are so dramatic that it’s not hard to imagine the island as the stomping ground of the Cyclops, who, according to Ancient Greek mythology, once roamed here.

What to see and do in Serifos, Greece

For ceramicist Natasa Kalogeropoulou, it was exactly these landscapes that drew her to set up her practice on the island in 2014. ‘Serifos is lean and elemental; it stands out for its understated, almost unpretentious beauty,’ says Kalogeropoulou. ‘At times, you feel that the landscape itself carries a primordial, transformative energy.’

Today, her studio, Kerameio, is located on the winding road that leads up to Chora (the word for ‘main town’ on the Greek islands). It’s here that she crafts her designs from stoneware clay, creating pared-back tableware with smooth contours and earthy glazes. There’s also an adjoining shop where she sells her wares alongside a selection of pieces by other Greek makers. The view from the space’s hillside perch provides a picture-perfect showcase of the unique natural beauty that brought Kalogeropoulou to Serifos, with a panorama that sweeps across the azure waters of Livadi bay below.

Despite being so easy on the eye, Serifos was largely written off as an industrial backwater, due to its vast iron mines, and so never quite established itself as a key stop-off on the classic island-hopping trail. The mines were closed in the 1960s, with much of the infrastructure left abandoned.

According to Iliana Kerestetzi, founder of Athens-based Mold Architects, these remnants of its past imbue Serifos with a particularly singular character, which she paid homage to when designing a series of three conjoined holiday villas for a development known as Homa. Built into the hillsides above Vagia Beach, the sand-coloured construction spreads across various levels dotted with large terraces and private pools.

‘The acknowledgement of this layered history was our starting point,’ says Kerestetzi. ‘We sought to reimagine a form of dwelling that unfolds beneath the surface, an echo of the iron miners’ world.

Homa is one of a crop of striking new architectural projects to arrive on the island in recent years. C-O Lab (an architectural firm with offices in both Athens and Serifos) has been particularly busy, designing a string of sleek holiday homes as well as the site of Greece’s first Zen monastery. But it’s not just the architects that are finding inspiration in the island’s rich history and remarkable geography. When furnishing Seriphos Estate (two villas overlooking Agios Ioannis beach), interior designer Ioli Chiotini also took cues from the island’s heritage.

She says, ‘Elements such as the mirrors, inspired by the eye of the Cyclops Polyphemus, and the lighting, referencing traditional beehives, act as cultural markers within the space.’

A version of this article appears in the June 2026 Travel Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.