Zakynthos, Greece: Self-Guided Walking Tour

Zakynthos is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, known for its contrasting landscapes, historic religious sites, museums and famous coastal scenery. From Zakynthos town and its churches to Anafonitria Monastery, Navagio Beach and remote Moni Strophadon, there are plenty of things to do in Zakynthos beyond spending time by the sea. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Zakynthos with 16 narrated places.

Part of the Ionian Islands, Zakynthos is the third-largest island in the group, after Corfu and Kefalonia. It is also known as Zante, a name introduced by the Venetians. Tourism and agriculture, including currants, olives and grapes, are important to the island, whose western coast is mountainous while the south and southeast include broad plains and sandy beaches.

What to See in Zakynthos

Zakynthos town

Zakynthos town is the island’s capital and administrative center. It is the largest settlement in the area, with the sea close to the northeast and hills rising toward the southwest. The town is a useful starting point for discovering the island’s religious heritage, museums and cultural history.

Saint Dionysios Metropolitan Cathedral

The Saint Dionysios Metropolitan Cathedral is the most important church on Zakynthos. Located in the heart of Zakynthos town, it is dedicated to the island’s most beloved saint and is one of the central religious landmarks to visit in the capital.

Church of Faneromenis

The Church of Faneromenis is an Orthodox church in the municipality of Zakynthos. It forms part of the town’s collection of religious buildings and can be included in a walk through the capital’s historic and cultural sites.

Saint Mark’s Square and the Catholic Church of Saint Mark

Saint Mark’s Square is home to the only Roman Catholic church on Zakynthos dedicated to Saint Mark. The square offers an opportunity to see a different part of the island’s religious history alongside the Orthodox churches that shape much of Zakynthos’s heritage.

Dionysios Solomos Museum

The Dionysios Solomos Museum stands in Agios Markos Square, on the northern side of Zakynthos town. It is also known as the Museum of Solomos and Eminent Zakynthians.

The museum is dedicated to Dionysios Solomos and Andreas Kalvos, two important Greek poets and fellow islanders. Solomos wrote the Greek national anthem. Inside, visitors can find local art from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including sculptures, ceramics, musical instruments and portraits of prominent Zakynthians.

Byzantine Museum of Zakynthos

The Byzantine Museum of Zakynthos presents the island’s Byzantine artistic heritage. The site also includes the Museum of Post-Byzantine Art, adding another perspective on the religious and artistic traditions of Zakynthos.

Together with the town’s churches and museums, it helps explain the cultural depth of an island whose historic buildings were heavily affected by the 1953 earthquake.

Anafonitria Monastery

Anafonitria Monastery is a historic monastery in the municipality of Zakynthos. It is one of the island’s religious landmarks and a destination for visitors interested in Zakynthos’s monasteries and inland landscapes.

Navagio Beach and the MV Panagiotis

Navagio Beach is home to the rusted hull of the MV Panagiotis, one of the most photographed shipwrecks in the world. The wreck lies on brilliant white sand beneath tall limestone cliffs, creating the image most closely associated with Zakynthos.

The MV Panagiotis was built in 1937 at the Scotts Bowling shipyard in Glasgow. It was a small coastal cargo ship, measuring just under 50 metres long, and spent decades carrying freight along the Greek coast. In the early 1980s, it came to rest on Zakynthos’s northwestern shore. The precise circumstances remain unclear, although stories connect the ship with smuggling and bad weather or mechanical failure.

Navagio means “shipwreck” in Greek. The beach is accessible by boat, and visitors come to see the hull in its striking setting.

Panagia Scopiotissa

Panagia Scopiotissa is a church on Skopós, a hill in the southern part of Zakynthos. The hill rises to about 456 metres and lies roughly five kilometres southeast of Zakynthos town, with views toward the sea to the southeast.

The church combines a religious site with a prominent hilltop setting, making it a distinctive place to include when exploring the southern part of the island.

The Vardiola of Argasi

The Vardiola of Argasi is a ruined Venetian watchtower. It once stood as a lookout over the coastline and remains a reminder of the island’s Venetian past.

Peluso Tower

The Peluso Tower is a medieval defensive tower and a surviving fragment of Zakynthos’s medieval history. Its solitary presence gives the surrounding landscape a connection with the island’s earlier systems of coastal defence.

Mycenaean Cemetery and Kampi Cross

The Mycenaean Cemetery, also known locally as the Kampi Cross, is an archaeological site in the municipality of Zakynthos. It offers a chance to explore an older layer of the island’s history beyond its churches, monasteries and Venetian remains.

Moni Strophadon

Moni Strophadon stands on the tiny islet of Stamfani, part of the remote Strophades cluster in the Ionian Sea. Reaching it requires considerable effort, but the monastery is notable for its unusual fortress-like appearance.

Its castle-tower walls rise 25 metres high and were built to resist pirates and invaders. Tradition dates the monastery’s foundation to 1241, when the Byzantine Empress Irene dedicated it to the Virgin Mary, known there as Panagia Panton Chara, and to Saint Dionysios.

The monastery also has a history of violence and recovery. In 1717, Muslim pirates looted the site, while the revered icon of the Virgin of All Joys was later bought back by ship captains from Patmos. Moni Strophadon is among the most remote and remarkable religious sites connected with Zakynthos.

Explore Zakynthos with a Self-Guided Audio Tour

A Zakynthos audio guide can add context to the churches, museums and landmarks you encounter without tying your visit to a group itinerary. Neywo’s free audio guide tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages.

The Zakynthos self-guided walking tour is:

• Zakynthos Town: Poets, Saints and Icons — 1 walking tour, covering 1.84 km in about 51 minutes, with 5 narrated stops.

The route connects places including the Catholic Church of Saint Mark, the Dionysios Solomos Museum, the Museum of Post-Byzantine Art, the Church of Faneromenis, Zakynthos town and the Saint Dionysios Metropolitan Cathedral. It is a practical way to discover the cultural heart of the capital while hearing the story of each stop when you arrive.

Download Neywo for Zakynthos

Download Neywo and explore Zakynthos with a free audio guide that brings the island’s churches, museums, monasteries and historic landmarks to life as you walk. With 16 narrated places and one walking tour of 1.84 km, the app lets you discover Zakynthos at your own pace, without a group or a fixed schedule. You can also continue exploring Greece through destinations such as Lefkada, Corfu and the wider country of Greece.