Patmos, Greece

Patmos is not a big island, but it is one of the best known. It was here St. John had his vision and wrote the apocalypse, and this is why Patmos is sometimes called "The Jerusalem of the Aegean". The Monastery of St. Johns towers above the capital, Chora, and the whole island breathes of faith and devotion. According to mythology, Patmos was a present from Zeus to his daughter Artemis, goddess of hunting and young women. She was worshipped here in antiquity, and the monastery of St. John was built on her temple.The island has probably been inhabited since prehistoric times, and it went through the same changes as the rest of the Dodecannese. It paid tribute to Athens in the 5th century BC, belonged to the Macedonians in the 4th century BC, and was taken by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. Whether you are interested in history and religion or not, the Monastery of St. John is a must. Its real name is Agios Ioannis o Theologos ("St. John the Theologist") and it looks like a huge fortress above Chora. In fact, it was built as a fortress in the 16th century, since the island needed some sort of defense when pirates attacked. In the monastery you can visit the church, the Treasury and the museum.