Tinos and Syros
Today we sailed to the island of Tinos, one of the islands that the big cruise ships fortunately bypass. We took an amazing bus ride through the inner part of the island in order to reach the small village of Pyrgos. Flowers covered the abrupt hillsides like colorful carpets all the way down to the coast. How can such a barren island that is covered with granite and slate be so fertile! These people collected stone by stone year after year creating endless retaining walls that run like a line through the terrain. Narrow pathways that the locals followed to their land connect all of the villages that are built far away from the sea so that they were protected from pirates. Little huts lay amongst the endless terraces that were used for the animals and now and then we saw cows, donkeys, and horses.
Stunning are the dovecotes that were built first by the Venetians who occupied the island up until 1715; it was the very last island to fall to the Ottomans. When the Venetians left Tinos the locals also started to build the dovecotes at spots protected by the northern wind. They would eat the meat and use the guano not only as a fertilizer but also in order to make an explosive material that was mixed with lime! They have wonderful shapes “embroided” on them, the circle symbolizing earth and the triangle representing birth!
We visited the small village of Pyrgos, which means “tower.” Some of the most famous sculptures of modern Greek art came from this village. Tinos has about 20 different varieties of marble that have always been exported. Buckingham Palace and the Louvre Museum both contain Tinian marble. Today the sculptures that are used for the restoration of the Acropolis are Tinian. In Pyrgos there is a school of arts for young artists; the best two enter The University of Fine Arts of Athens. We admired the wonderful blue and white houses that were embellished with such beautiful marble decorations. The platia, the main square of the village, was full of character with the huge plain tree in the middle and the cafes in the center.
We returned to the main town of Tinos to visit one of the very important pilgrimage churches of the Cyclades, the Church of the Virgin Mary. Greeks from all over the country have been coming to the island for many years to honor the miraculous icon of the Virgin, offering beautiful silver votives that embellish the whole of the church. Tinos is charming and filled with tiny shops all along its roads.
Later in the afternoon we sailed to the “Lady of the Cyclades,” the island of Syros, which is situated just across from Tinos. It is named for its neoclassical buildings and marble pavements on the streets, which give it a very different atmosphere. We walked to one of the most expensive neighborhoods of the town, in which we saw the houses of the ship owners. Amongst them was standing the Church of St. Nicholas of the Rich, a very imposing church with many neoclassical characteristics. The town hall was also very impressive, built by a famous architect named Chiller. Syros has a theater which copies the scale of Milano, in a smaller size, of course. All of this style reflects the fact that Syros was one of the most important economical centers of Greece in the 19th century.
On this island is also to be seen a byzantine icon of Dominikos Theotokopoulos, painted when he still lived in Crete and before he left for Venice and Spain, where he was named El Greco.
In the evening when we strolled through the same town, we felt that we had just visited a totally different one. During siesta in the afternoon it was so quiet and then in the evening it was bustling with locals, creating such a different atmosphere.
