MYKONOS TRAVEL GUIDE

MYKONOS > ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE

Hora is the main settlement of Mykonos. Inland you can find traditional farm settlements scattered about, the villages are grouped in the natural basins, where they are assured underground water and tillable ground. A large grouping of villages is on the relatively fertile plateau in the east of the island including the picturesque Ano Meras.

Hora is located on the western coast of the island, overlooking the sea, between the capes of Korfou and Tourlou and has developed to an extent which unfolds on the western slopes of the lower rock of its medieval castle. These characteristics distinguish it from most coastal settlements, which usually cling amphitheatrically to slopes and peaks close to the sea.

In Hora while the growth of the settlement gives one the sense of a labyrinth, the urban planning has been shaped by white masses and impressive street plans. This has been created by the uniform height of the buildings, the majority of which are two storeyed, and the rhythmical repetition of exterior materials and the uniform elements such as the doorways, balconies, stairs, terraces and colours.

All these characteristics give a visitor to Hora the impression that he is in friendly countryside. Only the sight of the sea reminds him that he is on an island. The development of Hora lasted through the centuries with the progressive building and adaptations of new sections always maintaining the single functional and aesthetic result.

As in most coastal settlements, the houses in Hora can be distinguished by the width of their facades and the arrangement of their interiors. A particular characteristic of this type of building is that the householder of the ground floor and that of the upper storey of a two storeyed building was not necessarily the same; the upper level could be independent of the ground floor and the flat rooftop above could be used for yet another storey.

Each block of the settlement usually has houses of same type that have many common characteristics. The access to the upper floor is always by an exterior staircase leading up from the street. Wooden handrails, wooden covered balconies, parapets, painted gutters and the often elaborately decorated chimneys, are grouped according to the period and the social class of its occupants. Common factors of uniformity are always those imposed by the means and materials available. The internal arrangement, more specifically of the narrow houses is simple and functional. So much so, that on the ground floor the elongated space is separated by a light partition creating two main areas. These houses usually have a window and a door on each floor. On the contrary, the spacious houses have the possibility of a greater variety of division.

The loft construction is common in all buildings, made of canes or boards, which are supported by props, usually chestnut, that also support the stone arch. Above this mesh is laid seaweed, for insulation and over this is laid mud that is whitewashed regularly in order to create an impenetrable crust.

The stonework is mainly granite roughly cut in stones of an irregular shape. The plasterwork is from coarse sand mixed with lime and covered only once. It is applied with a trowel without guides so that there is no visible separation. To this method is owed the characteristic surface and volume of the Cyclades building style.

The villages of Mykonos, although they use the same structural materials for their houses, nevertheless reflect a particular aesthetic aspect - white painted in contrast to the grey granite rocks, the prickly pear cactus and the thicket of reeds. The basic requirement of each village is the main house that usually has two or three rooms (sitting room, kitchen, bedroom - as in Hora - always small) and the whitewashed courtyard.

The ground plan of a village house is usually L-shaped, with the courtyard in the place of the void. Auxiliary spaces and buildings supplement the rural traditional residence. These can include a barn, oven, stable, pigsty, dovecotes, a wine-press, threshing floor, kitchen garden and water deposit, with smaller tanks for washing nearby at the well. Often the group of buildings is supplemented by a small family church, where the bones of family ancestors traditionally are interred.

The villages are austere and harmoniously incorporated into the rocky, limited resource environment, achieving the housing and the economic needs of the farmers of the island. They are representative of people who have cultivated the art of survival on the barren and rocky Cyclades with their ingenuity using the unique resources of the sun, the air and the sea.