Keri: The resort of Zakynthos with the breathtaking sunset

Keri is the first village on the mountain line that starts from here and ends at the end of Zakynthos at Skinari. It is located at the southwest end of the island and is part of the Marine Park. The local community has 680 permanent residents.

The coastal part of Keri is experiencing great tourist development.

Keri Lake is a protected wetland under the RAMSAR Convention, a NATURA area and a nature protection area within the Zakynthos National Marine Park. It is a shallow swampy area with an area of approximately 2,000 acres. Throughout the area there are springs with clear water, floating tar and oil. In Keri, it is worth visiting areas known from antiquity to the present day: - Herodotus' Spring. The sources of tar and oil in Lake of Keri are mentioned by the great historian of Greek antiquity Herodotus in his History, after he visited them in the middle of the 5th BC century and wrote about them. - The Porto (port) of Keri, which in ancient times was known as Naphthy. At the beginning of the 1980s, small pointed amphorae filled with tar were recovered from the sea, which proves that the tar product used in ancient shipbuilding was exported and traded in the port of Keri (of Naphthy). - The Vaulted Mycenaean Tomb, northeast of the village, in Paleo Keri, on the slope of the stream. It is a built chambered tomb with a typological peculiarity of the monolith roof and the double roof.

The church of Panagia Keriotissa in Keri is a monument of the modern times. It was built at the beginning of the 17th century in honor of the icon of the Virgin that had been discovered in the village and was attributed the miracle of saving Keri from a raid by Barbary pirates. The temple was renovated in 1745 and rebuilt, exactly as it was and with the same stones, after the earthquakes of 1953. Its interior is decorated with wonderful works of art from all the historical periods of its existence, such as :- the icon of the Virgin of Keriotissa, found in the village at the beginning of the 17th century and the century of its construction is unknown, - the iconostasis, with images attributed to the local painter, with a strong Renaissance character, Apostolis Krizia (Krezia), of the second half of the 18th century and - the signed Despotic icon of the Dormition of the Virgin, the work of the Zakynthian painter priest Stylianos Stavrakis, from 1761.

It would be a shame to leave Keri without enjoying one of the famously magical sunsets at the Keri Lighthouse. The view is panoramic and wonderful. The deep blue of the Ionian Sea blends with the horizon. The bare heights of Marathia on the left, the ups and downs of the mountain plateau with its hills and ravines on the right and below the Myzithres, rocks – guards of the open sea. If we stand to the right of the lighthouse we admire the colors of the sea behind cypress trees. Where there are rocks, the colors of the sea are greenish-blue and where a sandy beach is visible, the waters turn silvery.