Listed 36 sub titles with search on: Sights for wider area of: "KOZANI Prefecture GREECE" .
SIATISTA (Town) KOZANI
Most of the wealthier mansions still standing in Siatista date from
the second half of the 18th and the 19th century. Built by prosperous local merchants
in two of the town's neighborhoods (Yerania and Hora), they are rectangular in
plan and their comfortable upper storeys are richly ornamented.
The low entrance, usually found in the western wall, leads to an inner,
flagstone courtyard ('embati' or 'mesia') around which the various auxiliary spaces
are grouped (storerooms, cellars, etc.). One stone staircase communicates with
the middle floor, a second with the upper floor. On the middle floor,
arranged around an inner wooden balcony, are the 'iliakos' (sun room, the main
reception room) and the winter reception and living rooms ('heimoniatika'). The
upper floor contains the summer rooms ('kalokairina') arranged around a central
space, to the right and left of which are corridors, the lavatory and utility
rooms.
From outside, the mansions resemble fortresses since their lower section
(middle and ground floors), dressed with bare stone, is equipped with loopholes
and only a few barred windows. Conversely, the top floor is a light construction
of varnished wood with enclosed balconies ('sachnisia') at the corners and larger
openings (windows and transoms).
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
The Poulko (or Poulkidis) mansion stands in the Yerania neighbourhood
and, as the inscription above the entrance testifies, its construction began in
1752.
Its facade, in the section just under the roof, is decorated with
stylized ornamental motifs (rosettes, stars) and a ship. In the upper rooms the
plaster transom windows can still be seen with their complex stained glass designs.
In addition, the decorated plaster fireplace in an upstairs room is
an exceptional work. Among the wall-paintings is one of Constantinople
that seems to depict its siege by the Turks.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains images.
The Nerantzopoulos (or Hatziyiannidis) mansion is situated on Hora's
main square. According to the inscription on the facade, it was built in 1754
by Hatziyiannidis who was a merchant
in Budapest (Nerantzopoulos acquired the house
later).
Its decoration
and plaster-framed transoms are impressive. From the wooden ceiling in the 'iliakos'
(the main room) on the mezzanine hang sculptures of a melon and a sliced watermelon.
In the transoms, apart from their lovely plaster frames, of interest are the incised
designs, inscriptions and lines of verse. Artfully written on smoked glass, the
verses are composed in an old fashioned language and praise the beauty and magnificence
of the house.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains images.
The Sanoukos mansion is situated in the Hora district; according to
an inscription in one of the rooms, it was built in 1742. The resistance of its
dynamic owner, Kyra-Sanouko, to a raid by Turkish Albanians in 1784 has been immortalized
in a local folk song.
The rooms on the upper floor are decorated with plaster transom window
frames and with painted
carved wooden ceilings. The murals in the 'kalos ondas' (best room) depict
plant and symbolic themes, while between the real transoms trompe l'oeil imitations
have been painted.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
The Kanatsoulis (or Hatzimichail) mansion is located in the Hora neighbourhood.
It was built in 1757, as the inscription reads, by Nikos Hatzimichail, a member
of a powerful family
of merchants from Siatista, who had offices in Vienna and other central European
cities.
The Hatzimichail mansion contains one of the most interesting series
of 19th century folk
paintings, which an inscription dates to 1811. In a room on the mezzanine,
named the "Pantheon", the wall-paintings depict scenes
from mythology -- based on a mythology handbook written by Harisis Megdanis,
a scholar from Kozani -- as well as portraits of the owner, his wife and a second
male figure, perhaps a relative.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains images.
The Maliongas (or Argyriadis) mansion stands next to the Nerantzopoulos
mansion. Tradition has it that its construction began in 1759. An inscription
in one of the rooms upstairs dates some repairs and part of the decorative
painting to 1844.
The murals in the house depict the owner's occupations as well as
his political ideas. There is a large painting of Frankfurt in a room on the ground
floor, while one in the main room upstairs shows an Austrian hussar. Two other
male figures on the ground floor have features resembling those of Rigas Ferraios
and Lord Byron.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains images.
The Manousis mansion in Hora has an inscription on its facade dating
it to 1762-63. Its construction and sumptuous
decoration reflect the wealth of the Manousis family, who had created one
of the most powerful Siatistan trading
businesses in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Wood
carvings of exceptional quality decorate the mezzanine and upper storey. The
painting
decoration covers most of the walls and wood-paneled surfaces with an extraordinary
diversity of subjects (cities, Greek mountains between flower pots, symbolic representation
of a bird with a snake).
Of particular interest are the scenes of Mount
Athos with Vatopedi Monastery,
and Mount Siniatsiko with a house and tower, possible portrayals of specific buildings
in Siatista.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
The Keratzis mansion is located in Hora. It is not known when it was
built. Its wall-paintings,
concentrated in one of the upper rooms, are typical of the folk art of the second
half of the 19th century
Of special interest is the scene of Constantinople
within a frame of laurel leaves, which is a copy of a period copperplate engraving.
There are also paintings of Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus which
refer us to Athens and the foundation
of the Greek state. The presence of the meander amongst the other decorative
motifs shows the influence of neoclassicism.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains images.
The Lioutaris (or Kariofilis) mansion is in the Yerania district.
Although its exact construction date is unknown, it must have been built around
the middle of the 19th century. The painting
decoration in the interior contains several neoclassical features.
Apart from the portrayal of Constantinople, which is less realistic
than the renderings of the city in the Poulko and Keratzis mansions, the wall-paintings
depict the four seasons and the allegorical figures of night and day. They are
the work of Christodoulos Zographou, a painter from Siatista.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
ERATIRA (Small town) KOZANI
The urban
houses of Eratyra were built by families whose income originated from trade
and emigration. The oldest of these mansions date to the 18th century and resemble
their contemporaries, the mansions of Siatista.
They have two storeys and are L-shaped in plan.
On the ground floor, around the flagstone courtyard, are the 'strotos'
(family sitting room) and a second room for auxiliary functions, while at the
rear of the house is the 'katoi' (a semi-basement with a few openings), where
foods were stored. The kitchen, oven and lavatory are in the so-called 'magereio'
(cooking shed), a small building in the courtyard near the house.
The wooden staircase in the courtyard leads to the upper floor ('anoi'),
where on the two long sides of the open 'liakoto' (sun room) four rooms were arranged,
of which the 'bas-ondas' was the main reception room. In the older houses, the
roofed balconies, supported on buttresses, project symmetrically from the two
ends of the main facade and the central portion of the rear.
In the later houses, the balcony, now projecting from the middle of
the front of the upper storey, is supported by wooden columns, creating a semi-open
area in front of the entrance, the 'hayiati'.
Unworked limestone blocks quarried locally and bonded with mud were
used as construction materials for the ground floor, while for the upper floors
lighter materials were preferred (such as 'tsatmas', half timbering and plaster
with infill).
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
The Lazaridis mansion lies on the north side of town. It contains the oldest surviving wall-paintings in Eratyra, dating to 1796 as the inscription tells us. Using sparse color and line, the artist has rendered the two-headed eagle of Byzantium and the sliced watermelon (which at one time symbolized the beheading of Saint John the Baptist), a subject encountered in churches as well as houses in western Macedonia and Mount Pelio. From the 18th century, however, its symbolic significance was forgotten, as indicated by the presence of the fork sticking into the fruit.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
The Papatheodorou mansion
is situated near the old town square. It is a large building with a rectangular
layout.
Its wall-paintings, dating to the last quarter of the 19th century, appear in
one room on the ground floor (now varnished), but mainly in the rooms upstairs.
Two of the upper rooms are decorated
with plant and other motifs as well as buildings enclosed within medallions, reminiscent
of the ornamentation on some porcelain plates. In the main room, a frieze embellishing
the entire length of the upper part of the wall depicts an imaginary landscape
with curious large buildings intermingled with the figures of animals and humans.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
A typical example of the mansions
of Eratyra is that of Milios on the north side of town. Its wall-paintings,
which date from the mid-19th century, are concentrated in one room on the upper
floor and extend like a frieze below the ceiling.
They portray animal and human figures as well as buildings in a landscape.
The military costumes worn by the people and the apparent sequence of the paintings
indicate that the scenes may tell a story, possibly one connected with the events
of the period.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
The Delivasis mansion is located near that of Lazaridis. It has all
the characteristics of the later
type of house with the 'hayiati' (covered porch) at the front. Its wall-paintings
date from 1878. The murals
in the adjoining wing, which was used for guests, are of greater interest. They
depict the portraits of the owner's four daughters within ornamental baroque frames.
These figures with their European dress and coiffures each hold a
representative object: fan, letter, bouquet, caged canary. These scenes, although
the work of a folk
artist, are governed by the principles of European painting.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
KOZANI (Town) MAKEDONIA WEST
The architectural style of Kozani's urban residences reached its full expression
around the middle of the 18th century, a time when the town's merchants and owners
of small factories were acquiring considerable financial power and their way of
life became more urbanized, influenced by trends from central Europe.
On the ground floor around the spacious flagstone courtyard, were
arranged the 'aniliako' (the sunny, winter sitting room), the cellar, the storeroom,
as well as the 'kafe-ondas' and the 'mousafir-ondas' (where guests were welcomed).
The wooden staircase led to the 'hayiati' on the upper floor which
closed with a trapdoor. On two sides of the raised 'doxatos' there were summer
sitting rooms, a larder and the 'kalokairinos ondas' or summer formal area, which
formed a single space with the 'doxatos' and the 'hayiati'. Usually the utility
rooms (the lavatory, the well, and the storerooms), were found in the courtyard,
but they could also have been located in the vaulted basement.
In times of danger the inhabitants used to escape from a passage located
in the small courtyard to the rear of the house, which communicated with the courtyards
of neighbors and linked up with the town's road network.
The sumptuously decorated
mansions of Kozani were enclosed by stone walls punctuated with a few barred openings
on the outer sides, while in the upper floor, the enclosed balconies and the covered
porches usually looked onto the inner courtyard.
Kozani's surviving mansions
Only three of the magnificent mansions built by the prosperous 18th
century merchants of Kozani are still standing today. Typical examples of both
the architecture
of the times and the tendency towards ornately carved woodwork
and decorative
painting, the mansions of Georgos Lassanis (second half of the 18th century),
Grigorios Vourkas (1748) and Vourkas-Katsikas (1762) represent the fashion of
the second half of the 18th century.
The mansions that have perished
Most of the mansions that were built in 18th century Kozani have been destroyed.
The Kozani Folk Art
Museum contains parts of some woodcarvings from the Harisis Trantas mansion
(late 17th century), which are closely related stylistically to the woodcarvings
in the church of Ayios Nikolaos and of the 'kalos ondas' of the Tziminakis mansion
(late 18th century), which have been removed to the Benaki
Museum in Athens (gift of E. Stathatou). The Kozani Folk Art Museum has also
acquired the 'bas-ondas' of the mansion belonging to G. Sakellariou (late 17th
century) with its ornate painted decoration.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains images.
AGIA PARASKEVI (Village) KOZANI
Large, three-aisled basilica (dimensions 32 x 14 m.) with a narthex
at the west end and a transverse aisle, triconch in plan, in front of the bema.
Three attached buildings were uncovered, one of which functioned as a baptistery
with a built-in font. The floors of the church are covered with mosaics decorated
with floral patterns and animal figures. The basilica is dated to the beginning
of the 6th century A.D.
Excavations on the site started in 1964 and were comppleted in 1971.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture URL below, which also contains image.
AIANI (Small town) KOZANI
The church, which once stood in the centre of the modern village of
Aiane, was the catholicon (main church) of a monastery, at least during the Turkish
occupation. In its last phase it was single-aisled, with a tribelon (triple arched
opening) between the aisle and narthex. The roof was constructed in various levels,
but it seems that its original plan was different. The foundation of the monument
is dated to the 10th or the 11th century. The interior was decorated with wall
paintings dated to 1624, which were covered by a second layer of frescoes in 1877.
The church collapsed in 1996 after an earthquake.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture URL below, which also contains image.
The eventual excavation of Servia will reveal the Mystra of Macedonia,
for the ruins of walls, churches, and houses can be made out among trees at the
top of a naturally fortified hill which overlooks the valley of the Haliakmon
River.
The walls encircling the 11th century acropolis descend the hillside
in tiers, encompassing churches like those of Ayioi Theodoroi and Ioannis Prodromos
(Saint John the Baptist) and the now ruined Metropolis, all of which date to the
11th century.
The Metropolis, a large three-aisled basilica with narthex, was dedicated
to Saint Demetrios; two layers of wall-paintings still survive and bear witness
to a brilliant historic past, though they are exposed to destruction by rain and
human hands, as reconstruction of the monument would be an extremely difficult
undertaking.
By kind permission of:Ekdotike Athenon
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Macedonian Heritage URL below, which contains image.
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