3291, 3299, 3338 GREECE - Authentic Greece (Georges Meis Collection)

3338

 

Posted 13.12.2019, 23.12.2019, 07.01.2020
George Meis studied photography – cinematography in Paris, and then worked as a photographer in the fashion world for five years, during which time he created Meis Studio. The publishing world next claimed his interest, and he published a series of postcards, which presented a different view of subjects and landscapes. His subjects, taken from both mainland and island Greece, evoked international interest and were published in poster size.

3291

The old man in the postcard 3291 wears vraka (a sort of baggy trousers or breeches popular mostly at the islands and the costal part of Greece), and handmade leather shoes called trohadia, which look like sandals.

3299

3139 GREECE (Crete) - Cretan Traditional Costumes

Located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea, separating the Aegean from the Libyan Sea, Crete has a fascinating culture and it's people can boast an amazingly varied heritage of influence from miscellaneous cultures and civilisations. Crete itself is renowned for being the home of one of the earliest, if not the earliest, civilisations of the world, the Minoan civilisation. There followed the Dorians, the Egyptians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Venetians, and the Otomans.

2013 GREECE - Yίasou!

Cafes in Greece and the Greek Islands are an important part of daily local culture. There are cafeterias in every corner of Greece, from the busiest spot of the town till the most secluded village in the mountains. In small towns and villages, in the central square, is the Greek traditional cafe that is called kafenion. In summer, kafenion are the best places to enjoy a cold afternoon refreshment with friends, extended for hours, discussing daily problems, exchanging news or gossips.

1933 GREECE (South Aegean) - Rock climbing in Kalymnos

Located in the southeastern Aegean Sea and belonging to the Dodecanese, the Kalymnos Island is widely considered a sport climber's paradise. It is even said that it has the highest concentration of sports routes anywhere in the world. Roughly rectangular in shape, with a length of 21km and a width of 13km, it is mainly mountainous with complicated topography. The coastline is also very irregular, with many sheltered coves, offering a huge range of climbing on slabs, big walls, overhangs and tufas to suit every level and style.

1099 GREECE (Crete) - Men in a cafeneon

Crete, the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits, with roots in its long history, that spans thousands of years. Even if it is one of the few Greek islands that can support itself independently without a tourism industry, its economy relies however on services and tourism. European Union integration and modernisation has had a huge impact on local culture and attitudes, so the Crete of today is very different from the Crete 20 years ago, and further is a contrast between town and village life.

0596 GREECE (Attica) - Evzones at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Athens

The word evzōnos (meaning the "well-girt" men) was first attested in Homer's Iliad, being used in the following centuries to describe a type of light infantry with elite status. The military tradition of Greeks reborn after obtaining the independence, more accurate from 1833, when Otto, the first king of Greece, organized the Greek Army along new lines. The Bavarians that had come with him formed the majority of the "European" Line Infantry battalions, among these units being one rifle company, named Skirmisher or Evzone. In addition, ten light Skirmisher battalions were formed from Greeks, dressed in a uniform based on the garb of the klephts of the War of Independence. The first four elite Evzone light battalions were formed in 1867, with the task of guarding the frontier.

0459 GREECE - An Orthodox Christian priest riding on a donkey

Today, Greece is the only country in the world where an Eastern Orthodox Church is clearly recognized as a state religion, being appreciating, in general, that the identity of modern Greek nation is ethnoreligious. Given that the Greece was an early center of Christianity, and the Byzantine Empire was the result of the synthesis between Hellenistic culture, Christianity and the Roman state structure, no wonder that often is put the equal sign between "Greek" and "Christian Orthodox". So this picture with a priest riding on a donkey is representative for Greece, at least for the rural areas.