The famous marble arch Portara (Portara) served as the gate to the temple of Apollo is the main attraction and a trademark of the picturesque Greek Islands of Naxos and its capital. The ruins of an ancient temple located on a small islet of Palaces, which is connected to port city by a Causeway. An impressive marble structure is the first thing you see tourists arriving on Naxos.

It is believed that the ancient temple was built in honor of Apollo, because it is orientated towards the island of Delos, where according to tradition, was born the Golden-haired God. However, some researchers believe that the temple could be built in honor of the God Dionysus, who was worshipped as the patron of the island of Naxos.

The construction of the temple of Apollo began about 530 BC, during the reign of the tyrant of Naxos Lygdamis (Ligda). In those times, the island prospered and was an important financial and cultural centre of the Mediterranean. The ambition of Lygdamis required to build a temple, the likes of which is not in the Greek lands, and large-scale construction began. But due to the war the works were suspended, and after the overthrow of a tyrant and not abandoned. The temple of Apollo never was completed, and to this day preserved only part of the Foundation and colonnades and stately, lonely towering over the ruins, arch Portara, the height of which exceeds 6 m.

In Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods, the temple was used as a "marble quarry". Various architectural fragments (marble blocks, parts of columns, capitals, etc.) from ancient structures were found in a few churches of Naxos, as well as in the medieval mansions and Venetian fortress. Portara has survived only because they were too big and heavy (the weight of each marble block is about 20 tons).