Panormitis is the Monastery of the Archangel Michael, patron saint of Symi, at the island’s southern end, a dozen kilometres or so from Symi town by road.
Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
What is actually there, and when it was built
The buildings have been rebuilt and added to over centuries, and our own guide carries the dates individually rather than as one founding year:
- The present church was rebuilt in 1783 by the monks Neophytos and Kallistos, after pirate raids.
- The icon’s silver revetment is dated 1724.
- The iconostasis, 1788.
- The bell tower, 1905 to 1911.
On site there are ecclesiastical and folklore museums plus a library.
That spread of dates is the honest picture of the place: not one building from one moment, but a working religious house repaired and extended as it needed to be - and the 1783 rebuild tells you what the southern Aegean was like to live in.
Getting there without crossing the island
Two ways, and the second is the one people miss.
By road, a dozen kilometres or so from Symi town.
By sea - a few sailings from Rhodes call at Panormitis directly. If the monastery is the reason you are coming to Symi, that can mean arriving at it rather than travelling to it.
The feast
The November feast is the monastery’s own, and it is when the place is what it is for rather than what visitors see.
Symi around it
Symi is reached only by boat, most often from Rhodes - about 50 minutes on the high-speed catamaran, up to around 1.5 hours on a conventional car ferry. There is no airport.
The island has two settlements: Gialos, the harbour in the north, and Chorio / Ano Symi, the upper town on the ridge, joined by the Kali Strata staircase - a stone staircase of several hundred steps, commonly counted at around 500.
That staircase is the thing to know about Symi generally: it is a steps-and-hills island with very little flat ground.
Practical notes
We print no opening hours. It is an active monastery and the arrangements are its own.
Modest dress applies, as at any working Orthodox house.
Timing on Symi: the harbour fills with day-trip groups off the Rhodes boats around the middle of the day, and settles in the late afternoon when the excursion boats leave.
Common questions
How old is it? There is no single founding date in our sources. The present church dates from a 1783 rebuild; other parts carry their own dates from 1724 to 1911.
Can I get there by boat? A few Rhodes sailings call at Panormitis directly.
Is it far from the town? A dozen kilometres or so by road, at the opposite end of the island.
Next
Our Symi guide has the practicalities, things to do in Symi covers the harbour and the staircase, and the beaches cover the boat taxis.