Jelly Bean Wars

Chios, Greece

Mesta

Despite cruel winds, we managed a day touring two of Chios’s famed mastic villages.  Mastic, or a gum resin is still refined from odd, scrubby trees that grow in the south.  It’s most famous use was in the manufacture of chewy sweets, and considered by the ladies of Istanbul’s harems something of an aphrodisiac.  When Chios withheld supplies (and the ladies’ needs were strong apparently), the incensed Turks set upon the Chiot. Numbers killed or enslaved were horrendous, many villages decimated (1822).  However a few rural, mastic producing villages, mastichochora, were preserved. 

One of the main gates into the complex village

We bussed to Mesta and took an hour to walk through this labyrinthine medieval and well-fortified village.  Cobbled streets, under vaulted tunnels of two storey houses, lead to a leafy town square set out with many eateries and a large Baroque style 18^th c church, Megas Taxarchis, said to be one of largest & wealthiest in Greece. 

 

Sadly, church gates were locked, so we continued following the robust village walls back to our bus stop.  Not before investigating a small craft shop, replete with loom.  GS was treated to a display of very fine weaving and allowed to wander through the cave-like premises, presumably once a home.

Patron Saint perhaps?  Mesta

Next stop, Pyrgi (peer gee). Here, village houses are covered in xysta, or a mesmerising mix of geometric patterns cut into white plaster.  Inside the maze of these fascinatingly decorated houses, we stumbled on the remnants of ancient village walls and just off from the village square, a complete surprise, the tiny, fresco covered 12^th c Ayii Apostoli (Church of the Holy Apostles).  These 17^th c frescoes, rendered in Chios folk-art style, are said to be the work of a Cretan artist and are in beautiful condition (no photos allowed).  To add further to the surprises held by this village, we discovered that families here claim descent from Christopher Columbus.  (Seafaring, now merchant navies, seems to be a traditional island occupation.)

Pyrgi - note the ropes of drying tomatoes & garlic

Bound by an infrequent bus service, we did not have time to dally, however on the way home through desolate rural landscapes, modest resorts and fabulous views across to Turkey we pondered how such a small island could host one of history’s most famous sons. Homer is said to have been born on the island (one of many such claims by similar contenders it would seem) but the northern village of Volissos appears the favoured site. 

Hardly room to park a motorbike

Xysta in perfect condition, everywhere