Vrontados is the seat of Municipality of Homeroupolis.
It is a seaside town build at the foot of the mount Εpos, full of flower gardens and olive groves, birthplace of ship owners and excellent seamen. Most houses are well-made, comfortable, with big gardens. A characteristic symbol of Vrontados is the statue of "Afanis Naftis" ( Lost Sailor), which is the work of the Chian sculptor Thanassis Apartis. It stands by the seashore, off the main street, in front of the Town Hall.
The history of Vrontadian people has close ties with the merchant fleet and their valuable contribution to it.
Spirited in their character, went in for navigation with zeal and hard work. And they become great seamen, the best of Chios, which with proud is posted as the Metropolis of Greek Merchant Navigation. A tradition that is preserved in our days.
The first settlers
Vrontados according to old inscriptions and documents, by the time of the Greek War of Independence of 1821, has the name "Erithai", from the ancient form "erithos", which means worker, farmer because the first inhabitants were occupied with the cultivation of land. Today there is the area of "Erithiani" with the parish church of Panagia Erithiani.
Later the area named "Vrontados", which comes from one family name known as "Vrontas" or according to what other people say, from the crash, which made by woodcutters the old-time, by the falling timber of woods in the area. In the beginning "Vrontados" was named just a small quarter, which still exists, and later all the area inherited this name.
There is not many historical facts about the establishment of the village. But, all who, by time, were involved with the history of the island, admit that Vrontados belongs to the newer buildings of the Isle and established the years before the fall of Constantinople, when the pirate attacks by the Middle Ages overran the Aegean islands.
According to the tradition, the first residents of the area were families from Koila - an area in the south of Vrontados in a distance of about 15km .These families took shelter and established here. After a sudden, bloody raid by Turk pirates they took with them the venerable icon of their protector Saint George, they found the quarter "Gemellidos" and built a big church to honor their protector, the great martyr Saint George.
That is how it become the first nucleus of the village, whom residents slowly became more, with the removal and the settlement of more farmers and shepherds, who used to live in small quarters on Epos and Flori, but they were destroyed by the pirates. The little village with few rare quarters took confined space, but after 1821, because of the constatnly expanding shipping and the increasing population with the emigration of people from other villages of Chios, it became bigger and took its latest form.
The area is rarely habitable with the quarters gathered around the churches.
Christopher Columbus
Besides, according to the tradition, the great navigator Christopher Columbus, visited Vrontados in order to study nautical charts and obtain information of experiencedVrontadian seamen, who would help him to his great voyage for the discovery of America.
That Columbus was in Chios in 1474 A.D., by the time he traveled to the Mediterranean as a merchant, considered as a fact, in which the historical George Zolotas is related in his books about Chios.
People`s occupation
The Municipality of Homeroupolis except from the captains, engineers, radio operators, the lower crews has also owners of merchant ships, whom from simple seamen managed to become excellent ship owners with their creativity, hard work and their business spirit.
There are few fishermen, shepherds, trades people, scientists, teachers and employees. Also many people here are self-taught painters, men and women, whose pictures are really great, natural and imaginary landscapes, portraits, many paintings on canvas or wood, with water colors and oil colors. Lately it is noticed that more and more people are occupied with land professions than ship's.
Churches
In Vrontados there are a lot of churches, among which, the cathedral of Saint George, the church of Panagia Erithiani with its wonderful pebbled yard and the church of Saint Mark are the most prominent and renowned.
In the coast of Vrontados there is the church of Saint Nicholas, the protector of seamen, and the church of Panagia Moutsena, that is Panagia of deck-boys.