Ano Mera

This guide to Ano Mera in Mykonos begins with two monks arriving in 1537 with nothing, fleeing raiders on Paros, and the wonder-working icon fishermen had pulled from the sea near Tourlos that they carried into a small chapel. It follows the gifts that poured in for centuries as the monastery's reputation grew, from embroidered vestments to the silver dragon by the altar, and traces how those donations quietly turned into something else entirely: land, across the island, in the icon's name. Walk out into the square in front of the church and you're standing on part of that story.