2024-04-19 20:29:34
Pyrgi, a medieval village in the south of Chios, stands out throughout the country for the designs that adorn the facades of many of its buildings, the famous scratchers. The original, impressive decoration that captivates the visitor’s gaze and gives the village a completely special image is threatened with extinction! And this is because archeology prohibits the application of this particular style of exterior decoration to new or restored buildings, while it also places restrictions on the repairs of existing designs!
The competent agency, as residents told us, obliges the owner of a newly built or reconstructed house to paint it ocher or gray. It is easy to see that gradually, with time, the scratches will disappear and with them the unique color of the medieval village. In fact, the alteration of the scenery is already visible.
According to information, archeology … rejects a deep-rooted tradition because it is of Italian origin, i.e. foreign! This is certainly a short-sighted approach, when in fact the influence of the Genoese on the island is known, since they occupied it. In other words, instead of favoring the preservation of this special tradition, there are conditions for its elimination!
Graffiti with ruler ruler and… fork
Scratches are compositions that consist mainly of geometric shapes and almost always start from the middle of the front door and extend to the entire height of the facade. But in some cases there are also other representations (bouquets in a vase, storks, tree branches, oblong leaves, etc.).
On top of the basic coating of the facade, a second one is applied, made of black sand from the neighboring coasts. Then they whitewash and outline the designs with a ruler and caliper. The lime is then scraped with a fork and dark subjects emerge on a white background.
As for the origin of the scratchers, we read in the book “Greek traditional architecture – Chios”: “It is a method similar to the Italian sgraffiti. This system of decoration, although it appears to be modern in the village, is reasonably believed to have its most remote origins in Genoa, both in terms of technique and indirectly in its model.
The artisans of Pyrgio, improvising, created the varied geometric themes instead of simply imitating isodom masonry with the sgraffito technique, which existed from long ago in Chora and Kampos and whose ultimate models are found in Italian Renaissance architecture.
A castle town, a story
Pyrgi is one of the castle villages of southern Chios, the area where mastic is exclusively produced. It is important from a folklore and archaeological point of view. It is surrounded by a medieval enclosure, which forms the outer wall of its outer houses. Because it was little affected by the earthquake of 1881, it also maintains its medieval appearance internally. The streets are narrow, the houses high, most of them two- and three-story, and continuous with each other along the streets, while in ancient times several houses had pyramidal roofs. The streets are very picturesque, as the houses are connected to the opposite ones by arches. Pyrgi got its name from its large and tall tower, around which the current village of many small and large settlements was built.
Dimitris Kyriakopoulos
{{-PCOUNT-}}12{{-PCOUNT-}}