Tripotamos traditional village

Our countryside hotel, Crossroads Inn, is located within the traditional village of Tripotamos, on the heartland of Tinos Island. The hotel consists of listed, traditional buildings which are part of the connective tissue of the housing settlement and of its society.

To the north, the back of the traditional Cycladic village of Tripotamos faces the towering granite starkness of the Rock of Exombourgo with its ruins of the medieval city of Tinos and the traces of earlier cities excavated by archaeologist Nota Kourou and dating back to the Prehistoric and Geometric Eras. To the south, Tripotamos overlooks the Monastery of Aghia Pelagia, the Aegean Sea, and the island cluster of Delos.

In terms of architecture, Tripotamos village has the design of a fortified city, with access entrances facing west, north, and east. It is a maze of stone buildings, which are the work of patient human hands, of covered vaulted alleys and crossroads, with the buildings’ anogia (first floors) slightly rising above it all, giving no hint that, below, there lives and breathes an entire village. It is this invisibility that helped Tripotamos and its inhabitants weather the pirate raids of past centuries in Tinos Island. The main road, the village’s spine, moving from east to west, cuts through the village and meets with the tightly built tiered alleys and vaulted arcades, all part of Tripotamos’ cohesive tissue that is devoid of gaps or open spaces.

Down the passage of centuries, the village’s inhabitants have been functioning as an extended family. Their local traditions, customs, and rituals make for a tightly knit social structure, not unlike the very village’s architectural tissue. Every year on Christmas Day, the custom of “Kavos” is revived, continuing through New Year’s Day and throughout the year until its annual cycle closes on the following Christmas. The next segment, “Kavos: an ancient custom” is entirely devoted to this ancient custom which is indicative of the profound degree of relations among the members of the society of Tripotamos.

The local church is dedicated to the Presentation of the Mother of God [Eisodea tes Theotokou]. It is celebrated grandly on November 21st with a huge “Panygiri”, a Feast, that finds the village’s households with their doors wide open to visitors, homemade appetizers that observe the fasting tradition of the day, and visitors being made welcome right after the church services until late into the night. On that day, the vaulted arcades and alleys resound with the sounds of songs and of people who are breaking away from their usual everyday routine.

A similar feast takes place on February 1st, when the Feast Day of Aghios Tryfon is celebrated. It couldn’t be otherwise: Aghios Tryfon is the patron saint of winegrowers and vineyards, where Tripotamos traditional village has a long and rich history. Last, a fairly new festival has begun to gain ground at Tripotamos; It is the Wine Festival of Tinos Island and takes place in the third week of August, with events ranging from concerts and art exhibitions to dancing, eating, and drinking.

Tripotamos is situated at a distance of 5km from Chora, the main town of Tinos. Located as it is on the crossroads to Endochora (the heartland of Tinos), Tripotamos offers easy access to the traditional settlements of Exomeria (northern Tinos), Mesa Meri (inland areas), Pano Meri (upper areas), and the island’s lovely beaches. The old roads and cobblestone pathways that go through Tripotamos on their way to Chora and Endochora are ideal for hiking forays and, in their greatest part, are well-maintained and marked. Local Hiking Trail 3 to the villages of Sperados and Mountados goes through Tripotamos and ends at the Monastery of Aghia Pelagia.

Our Crossroads Inn, countryside hotel is a labour of love: with great respect, we have united the past with the present and the traditional with the contemporary. From the very beginning, the aim of our hotel’s project, was to enrich our guests’ alternatives: to give them the pleasure of spending their vacation in the tranquil and one-of-a-kind traditional ambiance of the village of Tripotamos, on the heartland of Tinos Island, and of returning home taking away with them the coziness of actually having “lived the life local” at a traditional village of the Cyclades island cluster. Don’t miss this unique experience!