Skopelos · Stafylos & the south coast · Στάφυλος
Stafylos & Velanio
Stafylos is a small bay among pines about 4 km south of Skopelos town, with a sandy beach, a taverna on the hill and, just over the headland, the long wild beach of Velanio. It carries the name of Staphylos, the Cretan prince, son of Dionysus and Ariadne, who in legend brought the vine to the island. On the rocky headland between the two beaches, in 1936, the archaeologist Nikolaos Platon found a royal tomb of the Late Bronze Age, with a sword whose hilt was covered in gold.
The bay where a son of Dionysus is said to have landed, and the gold-hilted sword in his tomb
The story of Stafylos & Velanio
The ancients told that Staphylos, whose name means 'bunch of grapes', came from Crete as a general of Rhadamanthys and founded the city of Peparethos. Behind the legend is history: in the Bronze Age the island was settled by people from the Minoan world, who brought vines, and Peparethian wine was praised for a thousand years.
The tomb found by Platon on the headland held the burial of a ruler with rich goods, the finest a sword with a gold-plated hilt about 32 cm long, now in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Traces of a Mycenaean settlement and its walls have been found on the headland and behind Velanio.
Where to eat
Tables we love in Stafylos & Velanio
Stafylos · Stafylos & the south coast
Good to know
Before you go to Stafylos & Velanio
Getting there
By road or on the bus from Skopelos town, then a short walk down to the beach. Velanio is 10–15 minutes on foot over the headland.
When to go
Early morning, before the beach fills up; or late afternoon for the walk to Velanio.
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