Kalorizika: a good fate

 

Kalorizika: a good fate

Kalorizika :

This is a Greek term of politeness that is hard to translate. You might say it to someone who has acquired a new item, a new house, a new car. Speaking in English one would say: ‘Congratulations!’
Takis says it means ‘good establishing’, ‘good rooting’, others say it means ‘good fate’

'A house is not enough to ensure a good life you need a good environment and community around that house.'

 

We have now rooted deep in the soil of Myrina. I've gathered together a few of my favourite pictures to illustrated the progress we've made over the last fifteen years, as we've sent down roots on the island of Lemnos. 

The house before I knew it, about thirty years ago

 Our Old Greek House – rooted in history

Ancient houses on the island of Lemnos date back to the 3rd millennium B.C. There are archaeological sites at Poliochni and Myrina indicating there were ancient Neolithic towns here. There is another site, Hephaestia, which is a later, but also an ancient Greek town that was inhabited from prehistoric to post-Byzantine times.  The houses in these ancient settlements were made out of local stone with tile roofs; some were even two-story high. But it was at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century that more stately homes were built it Myrina. These were built by traders who’d left the island to work in Egypt and one of these was Takis grandfather. The architects of these houses used locally carved stone to build what were called then Venetian mansions. These houses were built as monuments to affluence and success in distant Egypt.

Our Old Greek Home – established in Myrina

Fifteen years agoTakis unlocked the door.

This year we at last repainted that door!

It was 2002 when I first travelled to Lemnos and got my first view of the house. It was winter when we arrived at the front door by taxi. At first glance the building looked imposing but on closer inspection the ‘mansion’ turned out to be less impressive. The stucco was stained, all the windows were boarded up and a very dilapidated balcony hung above the front door.

Our Old Greek Home – built and renovated by local Lemnians

 Takis had to get used to the local economy. He became familiar with the owners of the small shops and warehouses, and they became familiar with his project.  He discovered that he was known as ‘The Australian’ by the building suppliers. And it was because he got a firm quote for materials and then paid up-front, not waiting until the job was finished and then delaying payment or haggling over the price, he was soon not only welcomed he was respected.

Our Old Greek Home – surrounded by the past but established today

I was a devote collector of ‘Mediterranean-style’ pictures which I pasted in a book under various headings, ‘kitchen’, ‘bedrooms’, ‘sitting room’, etc. Of course I had to wait for the big projects (roof, floors, windows) to be finished before putting any of these decorating ideas into practice but this didn’t deterred me, for my scrapbooks of ideas could always do with a little more fine tuning. When the building work was finished I first painted the interior, and then began work doing the finishing touches. One of these was the painted the ceilings another was adding lace curtains.

What had fascinated me in pictures of old Greek houses was the way that the wooden ceilings and cornices were often highly decorated. During the 18C there were groups of craftsmen who travelled from place to place across a wide geographical area building these homes and other structures. Many of these sinafia were seasonally mobile teams, often they came from Epirus, western Macedonia, Thrace and central Peloponnese. It seems probable that these were the master craftsmen who then employed locals to work for them. I wanted to keep our house light and planned to paint walls and woodwork cream however I thought we could copy this old tradition and put colour onto the ceilings. Our ceilings are not as complicated in design or in colour as those of old but they give each room a distinctive atmosphere.