The fleet and the revolution

Hydra is bare rock with almost no farmland, so its people went to sea. By the end of the eighteenth century they had built one of the largest merchant fleets in the eastern Mediterranean, and by 1821 the island was rich.

When the revolution began, the shipowners put that fleet and their own money into it. Hydra contributed 120 ships and about 5,400 sailors — and it produced the men who led the naval war: Andreas Miaoulis, who commanded the Greek fleet, along with the Koundouriotis, Tombazis, Sachtouris, Tsamados and Kriezis families.

The mansions

The captains' houses stand in tiers above the harbour, built of grey stone with high walls and enclosed courtyards, and several are open.

The Lazaros Koundouriotis mansion belonged to the man who financed much of the revolution, and it is now a branch of the National Historical Museum. The Pavlos Koundouriotis mansion, higher up among the pines, belonged to the admiral who became the first President of the Second Hellenic Republic, and covers the island's more recent past.

The Historical Archives Museum, on the harbour front, holds the documents, weapons, ship models and portraits of the revolutionary period.

The artists

From the 1950s Hydra became a place writers and painters came to and often did not leave. Leonard Cohen bought a house here in the 1960s and kept it for the rest of his life. Henry Miller wrote about the island, Patrick Leigh Fermor visited repeatedly, and the Greek painter Nikos Hatzikyriakos-Ghikas had a house here.

That has left a real gallery scene, and exhibitions run through the summer

The island is limestone, dry and steep, with almost no roads — which means the old stone paths between the town, the monasteries and the coves are still the way people move.

The walk up to the Monastery of Profitis Ilias, on the slopes above the town, takes about an hour and climbs steeply. From there a path continues to Mount Eros, the highest point, with the whole Saronic Gulf below.

Other paths run west along the coast to Kamini and Vlychos, and much further out to Episkopi and the western end of the island, which is empty.

There is no shade on any of them.

Hydra has almost no sand. The coast is rock, and swimming here means concrete platforms, pebble coves and ladders into deep water — which is part of the island's character rather than a shortcoming.

Spilia, at the edge of the town, is rock and platforms with a bar, and it is where people swim between drinks.

Kamini and Vlychos, twenty and forty minutes west on foot along the coast path, are pebble and the most used.

Bisti and Agios Nikolaos, at the western end, are reached by water taxi and are pine-backed and quiet. Limnioniza, on the south coast, takes a long walk or a boat.

The water everywhere is deep and exceptionally clear.

Diving works well here because the water is deep close in and the rock drops steeply. A dive centre operates from the town, with equipment hire, guided dives, night dives and wreck dives.

Water taxis run all day from the harbour to the beaches and round the island, and they are transport rather than an excursion — for the western coves there is no other way.

The harbour is a standing stop for yachts on the Saronic route, and in summer it fills.

The Miaoulia festival in June commemorates Admiral Miaoulis, with a re-enactment in the harbour and fireworks.

Hydra has no farmland to speak of, so the food comes from the sea and from the mainland opposite.

Amygdalota, soft almond sweets dusted with sugar, are the island's own and are sold in the bakeries around the harbour.

The tavernas cook fish, octopus and the standard Greek repertoire. The harbour front is the expensive stretch; the cooking is better in Kamini and in the lanes above the town.