The Venetian kastro in Antiparos Chora is the defining structure of the island's main village. Built in the 15th century, it takes the form of a ring of attached houses whose outer walls formed the castle's defensive perimeter — an unusual design in which the architecture of daily life was simultaneously the architecture of defence. The single gateway into the interior courtyard is still the entrance to the old village.
Inside the gate, the narrow lanes and whitewashed walls of the old settlement are well-preserved and atmospheric. Some of the original residential buildings have been converted to small shops and cafes; the tower at the centre remains. The kastro is small — you can walk through it in fifteen minutes — but spending an hour here in the evening, when the tour boats have gone and the light is golden on the white walls, gives a sense of what this island looked like centuries ago.