Ancient Sites in Antimachia

Antimachia sits in the middle of Kos, on the flat inland plain near the airport, and it is the best place on the island to see how people actually lived here before tourism.

The village holds a restored windmill still fitted with its grinding stones, a traditional house kept as a small museum, and a large Venetian castle on the ridge to the south.

Antimachia sits on the flat inland plain in the middle of Kos, near the airport and away from the sea. It is a working agricultural village rather than a resort, and that is precisely what makes it worth the detour: this is where you can see how people on the island lived before tourism reshaped the coastline.

The windmill and the traditional house sit opposite one another in the centre of the village. The house is a preserved twentieth-century home built from materials salvaged from older buildings, laid out in the usual arrangement — the good room for guests, the tavlaos where the family sat, the kitchen, the stable for tools, and the room where the women baked bread and worked the loom.

The castle is a short drive south-east, on high ground looking down toward Kardamena. It is far larger than most visitors expect: a long fortified wall enclosing an area that once held an entire settlement, with churches still standing inside the walls. There is very little shade up there, so it is a morning or late-afternoon visit rather than a midday one.