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

3318 GREECE (Eastern Macedonia and Thrace) - Giola in Thassos Island

Located in the south of the island of Thassos, near of little village Astris, Giola is а natural seа lagοon carved in rоcks. Separated from the sea by a narrow strip of rocks, it looks like a pool of crystal clear water, carved into a coral reef that rises above it, with sizеs 2Ox15 meters. The height of the rocks reaches up to 8 meters from where the swimmers can dive into the clear waters. Legend says that the pool was created by the Greek god Zeus, and Aphrodite went swimming there, so it is also known as "The tear of Aphrodite."

3276 GREECE (Eastern Macedonia and Thrace) - Limenas Thassou

Limenas Thassou (Port of Thassos), situated at the northern side, opposite the mainland and about 10 kilometres from Keramoti, is the capital and main town of the Thassou island, with a total of 4000 inhabitants. The current town, surrounded by the densely wooded pine green mountains, was built west from the ancient town. In and around Thasos, there are many ruins dating from antiquity. Most of the finds from local archaeological sites are on display at the Archaeological Museum of Thasos.

3270 GREECE (Eastern Macedonia and Thrace) - The map of Thassos

Lying close to the coast of Eastern Macedonia, Thassos, the northernmost major Greek island, is geographically part of the North Aegean Sea, but administratively belongs to the Kavala regional unit. It is formed mainly by gneisses, schists and marbles of the Rhodope Massif, and is of generally rounded shape. The terrain is mountainous but not particularly rugged, rising gradually from coast to centre. Pine forest covers much of the island's eastern slopes. Thassos is also the name of the largest town (officially known as Limenas Thassou, "Port of Thassos"), situated at the northern side, opposite the mainland and about 10 kilometres from Keramoti.

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.

3025, 3029 GREECE (South Aegean) - The Historic Centre (Chorá) with the Monastery of Saint-John the Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Island of Pátmos (UNESCO WHS)

3025 Monastery of Saint John the Theologian on Pátmos

Posted on 24.04.2017, 29.04.2017
Patmos is one of the northernmost islands of the Dodecanese complex, off the west coast of Turkey, and its main communities are Chorá (the capital city), and Skala, the only commercial port. It is mentioned in the  Christian scriptural Bible Book of Revelation, often called the Revelation to John, or the Apocalypse of John, a book of the New Testament that occupies a central place in Christian eschatology. The book's introduction states that its author, John, was on Patmos when he was given a vision from Jesus, around 95 AD.

3029 The Cave of the Apocalypse on Pátmos

After his death, possibly around 100 AD, a number of Early Christian basilicas were erected on Patmos. Among these was a Grand Royal Basilica in honour of Saint John, built c. 300-350 at the location where the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian stands today. Early Christian life on Patmos barely survived Muslim raids from the 7th to the 9th century, the Grand Basilica being destroyed. In 1088, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos gave to the monk Christodoulos Latrinos the complete authority over the island, as well as the permission to build a monastery, as part of his policy to create a base in the Aegean.

1925, 2815 GREECE (South Aegean) - Mykonos

1925 Mykonos - Kato Mili in Chora

Posted on 29.09.2015, 12.10.2016
Nicknamed The Island of the Winds, Mykonos is one of the Cyclades islands, which neighbour Delos in the Aegean Sea. It rises to an elevation of 341m, and has about 10,000 inhabitants, most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, also known as Chora (i.e. the Town in Greek). There are two seasonal winds in Mykonos. The one in winter, the Sirocco, a famous southern wind, which carries sands from the deserts that border the Mediterranean. In the summer a cooling wind comes from the north, the Meltemi. As a result, the windmills are a defining feature of the Mykonian landscape.

2815 Mykonos - Panagia Paraportiani in Chora

There are many windmills around the island, but most are concentrated in Chora. The famous "Kato Mili" (Greek for lower mills), stand in a row on a hill overlooking the sea to harness the strong northern winds. With a round shape, white colour and capped with wood and straw, the windmills were built by the Venetians in the 16th century to mill flour, and remained in use until the early 20th century. Many have been refurbished and restored to serve as homes to locals and vaults to numerous Mykonian heritage documents.

2520 GREECE (Mount Athos) - Initial Letter Omega from the Greek Alphabet

Greek or Hellenic is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to the southern Balkans, the Aegean Islands, parts of Anatolia and the South Caucasus, southern Italy, Albania and Cyprus. It has the longest documented history of any single clearly-defined Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts, the Greek alphabet has been used since the 8th century BC, and was the first alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as well as consonants.

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.

1977 GREECE (Crete) - Arkadi Monastery

The Arkadi Monastery is an Eastern Orthodox monastery built like a fortress, situated on a fertile plateau 23km to the southeast of Rethymno. The exact date of its founding is not precisely known, but according to tradition, the foundation is attributed to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius or to the emperor Arcadius in the 5th century. The current church dates back to the 16th century and is marked by the influence of the Renaissance, visible in the architecture, which mixes both Roman and Baroque elements.

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.

1644 GREECE (Eastern Macedonia and Thrace) - The war memorial in Komotini

Built on the Thracian plain, near the foothills of the Rhodope Mountains, Komotini is one of the main administrative, financial and cultural centers of northeastern Greece and also a major agricultural and breeding center of the area. It has existed as a settlement since the 2nd century AD, and during the Roman age it was one of the several fortresses along the Via Egnatia. During most of the Byzantine period, the settlement was overshadowed by the larger town of Mosynopolis to the west, and by the end of the 12th century, the place had been abandoned. In 1207 following the destruction of Mosynopolis by the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan, the remnant population fled and established within the walls of the abandoned fortress.

1556 GREECE (Ionian Islands) - Zakynthos, the flower of the East

Zakynthos, nicknamed the Flower of the East by the Venetians, is the third largest of the Ionian Islands, and lies around 20km west of the Greek (Peloponnese) mainland. It has the shape of an arrowhead, with about 40km length and 20km width. The western half of the island is a mountainous plateau and the southwest coast consists mostly of steep cliffs. The eastern half is a densely populated fertile plain with long sandy beaches, interrupted with several isolated hills, notably Bochali which overlooks the city and the peninsula of Vasilikos in the northeast. Its highest point is Vrachionas, at 758 m. The capital of this island inhabited by 45,650 people is the town of Zakynthos, located on the northern coast.

1196 GREECE (Crete) - Fortress of Spinalonga (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

The island of Spinalonga, officially known as Kalydon, is located in the Gulf of Elounda in north-eastern Crete, in Lasithi, next to the town of Elounda, near the Spinalonga peninsula, which often causes confusion. Actually it is an island only from 1526, since the Venetian occupation, when it was carved out of the coast for defense purposes. In 1578 the Venetians charged the engineer Genese Bressani to plan the island's fortifications.

1128 GREECE (South Aegean) - The traditional architecture of Oia, in Santorini

Located in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200km southeast of Greece's mainland, Santorini, classically Thera, and officially Thira, is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name. It is essentially what remained after an enormous volcanic eruption (which occurred some 3600 years ago) that destroyed the earliest settlements on a formerly single island, and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110km to the south, through a gigantic tsunami. A giant central, rectangular lagoon, which measures about 12 by 7km, is surrounded by 300m high, steep cliffs on three sides.

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.

1037 GREECE (Crete) - Gorge of Samaria National Park (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Crete, the largest of the Greek islands, once the center of the Minoan civilization, is mountainous and a land of gorges, the most glamorous being Samariá Gorge, the symbol of the island, which holds a unique and distinguished position in Cretan, Greek and Mediterranean history. Created by a small river running between the White Mountains (Lefká Óri), the largest mountain range of Crete, which dominate the southwest part of the island, and Mount Volakias, it is also identified with the unceasing production of the material and immaterial cultural heritage of Crete through the ages.

1024-1025 GREECE (Central Macedonia) - Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki (UNESCO WHS)

Founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon (son of Antipater, one of the great generals of Philip II and Alexander the Great), on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and 26 other villages, and named after his wife, a half-sister of Alexander the Great, Thessaloniki (from Thessalos - Thessalian, and nike - victory) evolved to become the most important city in Macedon, then an flourishing free city of the Roman Republic, and finally the co-reigning city of the Byzantine Empire, alongside Constantinople. Due to its importance during the early Christian period, but also later, the city is host to several monuments, constructed from the 4th to the 15th century, which constitute a diachronic typological series, with considerable influence in the Byzantine world. In 1988, 15 of these monuments of Thessaloniki were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

 

The Rotunda of Galerius (in the first postcard), also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Agios Georgios, is a cylindrical structure with a diameter of 24.5m, built in 306 AD on the orders of the tetrarch Galerius, and intended to be his mausoleum. Its walls are more than 6m thick, which is why it has withstood Thessaloniki's earthquakes. A flat brick dome, 30m high at the peak, which in its original design had an oculus (a circular opening in the centre), crowns the structure. The Emperor Constantine I converted the building in church in the 4th century, adorning it with very high quality mosaics, from which fragments have survived till today. In 1590 it was converted into mosque by the conquerors Ottomans, but in 1912 was reconsecrated as church.

0924 GREECE (South Aegean) - The volcanic island Nisyros

Located in Aegean Sea, between Kos and Tilos, the volcanic island Nisyros is part of the Dodecanese group of islands and has a shape approximately round, with a diameter of about 8km. According to Greek mythology, it was formed when Poseidon cut off a part of Kos and threw it onto the giant Polybotes to stop him from escaping. From geological point of view,  was constructed within the past 150,000 years, with 3 separate eruptive stages, ranging from explosive and effusive andesitic eruptions to effusive and extrusive dacitic and rhyolitic activity.

0666, 0810, 0811 GREECE (Attica) - Acropolis of Athens (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 03.06.2013 and completed on 20.09.2013
When we say Acropolis, our thoughts immediately fly to Athens, although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the term being a general one, which designate a citadel built upon an area of elevated ground with a defensive purpose. The fact is that the Acropolis of Athens had such a significance in history, that it's commonly known as "The Acropolis" without qualification. So I will use it myself in this way. Located on a flat-topped rock that rises 150m above sea level, the Acropolis was inhabited as far back as the fourth millennium BC. In the Mycenaean era was built a massive wall around the hill, which will serve as the main defense until the 5th century and will shelter the main religious buildings of Athens. Totally destroyed by the Persians during the Greco-Persian Wars, Acropolis was rebuilt during the Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BC), under the leadership of Pericles, and in the near future. Since then dates all its major buildings, to the construction of which participated famous architects as Ictinus, Callicrates and Mnesicles, and the great sculptor Phidias.

The Parthenon (the tallest building in the first two postcards), a temple dedicated to the maiden goddess Athena, built between 447 and 432 BC, is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the culmination of the development of the Doric order. It is regarded also as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy, western civilization and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. The Parthenon was built under the general supervision of the artist Phidias, the architects being Ictinus and Callicrates. The funds were partly drawn from the treasury of the Delian League, which was moved from the Panhellenic sanctuary at Delos to the Acropolis in 454 BC. Some studies conclude that many of its proportions approximate the golden ratio. The most characteristic feature in the architecture and decoration of the temple is the Ionic frieze running around the exterior walls of the cella, which is the inside structure of the Parthenon.

Another magnificent building is the Erechtheion, an temple built between 421 and 406 BC by Mnesicles, the sculptor and mason of the structure being Phidias. Its eastern part was dedicated to Athena Polias, while the western part served the cult of Poseidon-Erechtheus and held the altars of Hephaestus and Voutos, brothers of Erechtheus. It was built of marble from Mount Pentelikon, with friezes of black limestone from Eleusis. It had elaborately carved doorways and windows, and its columns were ornately decorated and painted, gilded and highlighted with gilt bronze and multi-colored inset glass beads. On the north side, there is a large porch with six Ionic columns, and on the south, the famous "Porch of the Maidens", with six draped female figures (caryatids) as supporting columns (in the third postcard). Although of the same height and build, and similarly attired and coiffed, the six Caryatids are not the same: their faces, stance, draping, and hair are carved separately; the three on the left stand on their right knee, while the three on the right stand on their left knee. 

Because Acropolis of Athens and its monuments "are universal symbols of the classical spirit and civilization and form the greatest architectural and artistic complex bequeathed by Greek Antiquity to the world", it was designated an UNESCO WHS in 1987.