Seashore of Poros

The shore at Poros is where the Greek navy began. The first dockyard of the new Greek state was set up here in 1827, and in 1830 the governor Ioannis Kapodistrias bought up the Russian installations there to serve it. Warships were built and repaired in this channel for half a century.

It also saw the worst day the young Greek navy had. In the summer of 1831, during the revolt against Kapodistrias, Admiral Andreas Miaoulis seized the fleet at Poros rather than hand it to a Russian admiral, and in August he burned it where it lay, the flagship frigate Hellas along with the corvettes Hydra and Spetsai. Greece did not replace those ships for years.

By 1878 the main base had moved to Salamis and Poros kept the navy's training school. The water in front of the town is a channel about 200 metres across at its narrowest, so anything under sail there passes within shouting distance of the houses.