Naxos

1994

In the Spring of 1994, after a long cold winter and an aborted attempt to retire in München, we escaped for four weeks to Naxos. Greek Orthodox Easter in that year was celebrated fully four weeks after Western Easter. I had hoped to attend the very moving Easter-night service in a local Greek church there. We found a room with the charming family Kritikos in Grotta - like in many families in Naxos their grandfather, a miner, had comed from Crete to work in the titanium mines of Naxos.

Naxos Harbor, topped by its Venetian Kastro and a Roman Catholic bishop's seat, is the Grand Central Station for all boats plying the Aegean Archipelago. For years we had avoided this large island because of that, but this early season it served us well. There are many possibilities for hiking, and instead of freezing in the cold winds on the beaches we went on many long hikes.

Boats in the harbor.

The landmarks of Naxos harbor are this little chapel - and an old pelican, which I never saw...

An Arab repairing his nets. In 1984 several Arabic fishing boats made Naxos their base.

Naxos-Grotta, where we lived and the Greek Gate on the little island from the hill of Aplomata

Barbara on the monument for Aplomata, one of the Minoan cemeteries where many "Cycladic Idols" were found. A small but worthwhile museum in the Kastro in back houses an exceptional collection of these statues of the Great Goddess in rigor mortis. There are even a couple of pregnant images among them...

Ag. Ioannes, a cave chaple in the rocks near Grotta.

An ancient marble drum in the poppies. I had never been in Greece in Spring, a profusion of flowers covered the meadows by the sea.

The Flowers of Persephone....

Filoti in the center of Naxos is a large village surrounded by ancient marble quarries. We took the bus or hitch-hiked and then walked from there.

One of the marble quarries north of Khalkis and...

the 11^th-century church of Panaghia Drosia - the honeyed Mother of God. I first visited it with Peter and Esther Zwahlen, a Swiss couple we met at the Kritikos' and with whom we are still befriended.

The village Papas of Kaloxylos who approached us in a kafeneion on the way to Kinidaros and the smaller Kouros.

There are two unfinished marble Kouroi (early 5^th century BC) hiding in the old quarries. This is the smaller one lying in the flower garden of an old woman east of Kinidaros (the other is found near Apollonas in the north of Naxos). Barbara, who became quite enamored with him and his lovely surroundings, took this picture.

Further northeast, high in the mountains lies Apiranthos, an ancient village inhabited by noisy Cretans who once worked the surrounding titanium mines, small holes in the hill sides much like the gold mines in the California and Nevada deserts. From here we walked, climbing across many fences and treacherous little canyons to...

... Moni Photodoti - the Light Giver - hiding inside a castle above the sea.

Photodoti became our secret place in Naxos, where to we returned many times over the coming years. Nobody ever disturbed us except an old woman who once came to check out the xenoi - the foreigners.

Barbara at Photodoti wearing the Tibetan Hat in 1996.

Four classical columns support the roof of its church. Barbara is lighting a candle for Susanne, a ritual in memory of Suschen's love for Bavarian churches...

The dome of the church protruding into the upper story of the Photodoti castle.

On the way back we had to take refuge from a sudden rain storm in this house in upper Filoti and were promptly invited for the noon meal there...

Easter Sunday at the farm of the Kritikoi in Galini. - The Easter-Night service was a disaster, instead of the expected tranquil, ancient, sung Chrysostomos-service culminating in the distribution of Phos, the Light at midnight, a cacophony of firecrackers, thrown by the youngsters of Naxos, lit the sky over town in garish colors.... But the Kritikoi had prepared the customary Easter-Night dinner with spit-roasted lamb, to which we were invited after church. Barbara had contributed a small tree hung with hand-colored eggs for the occasion, and on Sunday we were all taken to their family farm, to eat more lamb and dance with their cousins and children...