(A potters wood oven at Agios Stefanos)
The last column by Pip caused a bit of a stir with some
islanders: is it possible that low costs airlines will change Lesvos? The only
thing I hope is that the Lesvorians don't fancy making their island into a mass
tourist destination like Rhodes, Kos or Corfu. They should be proud of their
island as it is: the richness of its magnificent nature cannot be found on any
other Greek island.
Lesvos is a pretty big island (the
third largest in Greece) and, certainly, filling the entire island with tourist
resorts and villages - as has been done on the island of Rhodes and on the
Spanish island of Mallorca - will require Herculean effort from developers.
Imagine: in Mallorca you mostly find a traffic jam when attempting to visit any
of its remaining green areas. Do we want that on Lesvos?
The tourism on Lesvos has been
mainly concentrated in the north, around the medieval village of Molyvos, the
most popular destination for tourists. But Lesvos has so many other special
places, some of them still not known by people who have visited the island for
years.
In the area south east of
Mandamados, the village of Aspropotamos, the hamlets Agios Stefanos (known for
its early-Christian basilica) and Palios held lots of archaeological sites,
much of which have been lost, and historians only can guess what this region
looked like in ancient times.
In the past people did not always
recognise what value old ruins could have for their history. The islanders
probably did not even dream of strangers coming to Lesvos to admire dilapidated
castles and tumbled-down houses. So with no further thought they re-used the
stones of strongholds and temples and also helped the rare foreign visitor to
find stones with (to them) incomprehensible inscriptions and other
archaeological treasures. Although not everybody did so.
In 1852 Thomas Newton was sent to
Mytilini as the new British consul. He was interested in archaeology and had
connections with the British Museum. Apart from his consular work he travelled
across the island looking for museum pieces. Newton visited the basilica in
Agios Stefanos. By then this little church had already been without a roof for
years, but inside Newton found an interesting stone with an inscription. He
asked a local farmer if he could have the stone and the farmer answered that he
could take whatever he wanted.
Newton found some oxen to help transport the stone, then the Turkish Aga
came by and I presume Newton had to give him some money in order to continue
his enterprise. But then a woman, the owner of the land, came and sat down on
the stone, forbidding Newton to take the stone. She changed into a fury
defending the church, lit some incense to clean the church of the presence of
Newton, who had to leave the stone in the church.*
For the English and other foreigners
it was quite normal to ‘save’ archaeological treasures for their museums in those times. The biggest
theft in that period happened in Athens, where the then British ambassador to
the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, (in those times Greece was still occupied by
the Ottomans) took several years (1801 – 1804) to remove the frieze of the
Parthenon. He had it transported to England, where he sold the beautyful art
piece to the British Museum. The pieces are now known as the Elgin Marbles. Fortunately not everywhere did people have their history stolen from
under their noses (Dutch expression). The stone that Newton wanted to take, may
still be in the small basilica in Agios Stefanos (there remains a stone with
roman inscriptions). And later on the villagers built a new roof on the church.
If you continue travelling North
towards Palios, in the area of Kafkares, at the estuary of a river, lie the
remains of an old castle. In this place there must once have been a big
settlement, because there you can find plenty of ruined houses, cultivated
stones and lots of shards of ancient pottery. It is thought that this might
have been a lively little port, from where jars full of olive oil and wine were
transported.
A little further on, just beside
Palios with its idyllic little harbour, there are graves cut out of the stones
of the rough landscape. Palios – now a gathering of not more than a handful of houses – had also been much more lively: until
1922 pilgrims from Ayvalik arrived here in order to visit the Taxiarchis Monastery, that has a famous icon of the
archangel Michael known for its miracles.
In ancient times, transporting goods
like wine and oil was done by earthen jars. Those jars were made by potters and
especially in this area near Mandamados, many of them used to live. Quite a few
ruined houses have pottery kilns beside their dilapidated walls. The pottery
from this region (and that from Agiasos) was once famous all over Greece.
In Agios Stefanos a potter lives who
still makes pots and plates in the traditional way. The clay is dug out of the
ground and is put on the road, where it can be spread by the cars. This part of
the process of course is not so traditional: when there were not yet cars, the
clay was kneaded by elbows and feet, a very heavy job to get the clay supple. Once
the clay comes off the road it is put into water, then it is sieved with some
powder added to make the clay more elastic. The making and baking of the
pottery does however follow the ancient process: formed by hand, dried under
the sun and baked in a traditional woodstove.
When travelling through this pottery
land, many little pools surrounded by birds and dragonflies will come to your
attention. These were all created by the removal of the clay from the ground.
Imagine how many plates and jars come from there! Little beaches boarding the
crystal clear sea, birds, insects, wild lavender, hidden orchids and plenty of
old ruins make this area a great place, full of surprises. I am not sure if the
many cows, also wandering free around there, have a place in the history of the
pottery. But I am fairly sure that no tourist resort will be making its
appearance there soon because the beaches are too small and the landscape too
wild.
by Lucia Patrizio Gunnin
(With thanks to Mary Staples)
© Smitaki 2014
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