The central location of the island made Syros one of the most important ports in the Eastern Mediterranean during the 19th century, soon turning it into the commercial, administrative and cultural center of the Cyclades island complex. Hermoupolis still resembles an open-air museum, a live monument of neoclassical architecture with relics and cultural treasures worth discovering. From the medieval city of Ano Syros, the ancient monuments of the Early Cycladic period in Kastri, the municipality of Syros-Hermoupolis, the Apollon Theater resembling Scala di Milano, the Orthodox and Catholic coexistence as well as the various influences from Asia Minor and all the way to the machine center in Neorion operating since 1861, Syros is a unique place of everlasting historical tradition and culture.