The Knight's Retreat, Venue (Tinos)

The Knight's Retreat is a private historic residence in Xinara, a stone village on the quieter inland side of Tinos, beneath the rock of Exombourgo. The house describes itself plainly: "Not a hotel. Not a conventional wedding venue." You take the house for a while, and it becomes yours.

A house that still carries its past

The residence dates to 1698, and the family that owns it traces the house to Bishop and Knight Pierro Justiniani. The original coat of arms was found buried in the house and now sits above ground as a piece of carved stone rather than a decorative motif. Old timber, thick walls, changing floor levels and a wrought spiral stair are all still there, restored without being sanded flat.

Two structures, one property

The Bishop's House is the main building and the heart of the residence, with the living space that a family and close friends spread into over a celebration. Katoga is a separate, secluded space within the same property, which the owners set aside for the newlyweds so they can disappear once everyone has said goodnight.

Between them sits the courtyard, which is where a wedding here actually happens. As the house puts it, the courtyard does not need to be turned into an event space, because it already has stone, light, privacy and the Tinos landscape.

• The house for your celebration: ceremony, drinks as the sun drops, and one long table in the courtyard that carries on into the night
• Katoga for the first night: a secluded space for the couple, close enough to stay part of the house, separate enough to be their own
• The Bishop's House to stay in: family and close friends wake up where they celebrated, instead of driving back to a hotel
• Concierge on request: airport arrival, transfers, ferry connections, local transport, reservations and arrangements through to the journey home
• The old stone ruin for photographs: the remains of an early 18th century building adjoin the Bishop's House and can be arranged for private photography
• Other gatherings too: anniversaries, engagements, family celebrations, private dinners, birthdays and reunions, as well as small company retreats and private meetings

A panigyri is the village feast that Tinos has always done well: food passed hand to hand, wine poured, music, and eventually everybody up and dancing until it gets light. The house borrows that idea rather than the scale of it. Yours is smaller and entirely private, with only the people you chose, and nobody has told you it has to finish early.

In practice that shapes the evening more than a floor plan does. The ceremony sits in the courtyard, drinks follow while the sun goes down behind the mountains, and dinner is one long table that nobody gets up from for a couple of hours. After dark the place changes character completely, into candlelight, warm stone and the quiet of the Tinos mountains.

Because the whole house is yours, there is no other party in the next room and no hotel timetable pushing you along. That is worth asking about directly when you enquire, along with anything you want to know about music and how late it can run.

Xinara sits inland beneath Exombourgo, roughly eight kilometres from Tinos town and the port, on the side of the island most summer visitors never reach. It has been the seat of the Catholic archdiocese of Naxos and Tinos for centuries, and the cathedral still stands in the village. Around it are terraces, dovecotes, chapels and old walking paths.

Tinos is reached by ferry from Rafina and Piraeus, and by a short crossing from Mykonos, which is the route most guests flying in will take. Build a spare night into the front of the trip. Cycladic ferries are reliable most of the season and then abruptly are not, and you do not want a windy August afternoon eating your rehearsal dinner.

Once people are on the island the retreat can coordinate arrivals, transfers, local transport and reservations on request, through to the journey back to the mainland.