---
node: spot_mykonos_panagia_paraportiani
type: spot
slug: panagia_paraportiani
destination: dest_mykonos
title: "Church of Panagia Paraportiani"
lead: "Panagia Paraportiani is the whitewashed church by the old harbour, five chapels built into one another between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Its melted, asymmetric form is the most photographed building on Mykonos after the windmills."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_mykonos_panagia_paraportiani.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_of_Panagia_Paraportiani.jpg"
image_author: "Bernard Gagnon"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

Four chapels stand at ground level with a fifth built on top, and the whole is coated in the lime wash that islanders renew by hand each year, which is what rounds the edges. The name means Our Lady of the Side Gate, for the entrance to the medieval castle that once stood beside it. Only part of the complex is open, and services are still held.

## Highlights

Photograph it in late afternoon, when the sun comes off the sea onto the west face. The Kastro quarter behind it is the oldest part of the town and quieter than the main lanes. Dress modestly if you go in; it is a working church, not a monument.