The Old Watermill of Kyparissia: Restored and Thriving Again

The archaeologist Spyros Marinatos as soon as remarked about Kyparissia that: “Your metropolis was magnificent in antiquity, however it was unlucky to not have scribes to write down about its glory.” This phrase had a profound impression on Tzima Imirziadi when she heard it repeated years later. It impressed her not solely to write down about her metropolis but additionally to showcase her hometown in each doable approach. Raised in Kyparissia till she was 18, Tzima has fond childhood recollections of the enchanting Previous City, a spot that rivals different fortified cities of the Peloponnese in magnificence and dimension, though this isn’t widely known.

Tzima and her husband, Nikos Imirziadis, have made it their life’s mission to protect Kyparissia, its structure, and its historical past. Properly-traveled, clever, and with a profound love for tradition and nature, these pioneers within the discipline of promoting in Greece – founders of Greece’s first gross sales promotion firm, SPC, in operation since 1978 – have for the previous twenty years centered their know-how and their ardour on Kyparissia. Their most notable achievement to this point is the restoration, accomplished in 2013, of the city’s well-known watermill. As we speak, it’s a beloved gathering place for folks from all around the world.

“We at all times wished to have as a lot free-flowing water as doable round our house,” says Tzima. “In actual fact, we’ve laid out small streams in our backyard, we like it a lot. Once we noticed the watermill, we had been thrilled and purchased it with out a lot thought and with none actual concept what we might do with it. We don’t know precisely when it was constructed; the earliest written reference to it’s from 1850.”

Within the gorge, there have been 9 different mills. This one stood on the lowest spot on the stream and was the final to stop working, in 1974, when the municipality lower off the water provide, compensating the miller with 80,000 drachmas. He maintained the small store and the café of the mill till the late Eighties; the café had served those that got here to the realm to grind grain or who had been en path to the mountain villages additional inland.

Tzima and Nikos Imirziadis purchased the mill in 2005: “The heirs to the mill merely gave us the important thing; they didn’t need to maintain something that was inside it,” Tzima recounts. “We’re obsessed with antiques and have visited all of the vintage retailers in Europe, so we had been ecstatic with what we discovered inside.” They saved all of the gadgets, restoring those who wanted work. As we speak, you’ll be able to see them within the mill – every little thing from pillows and furnishings to umbrellas, cups and jugs.

It’s also possible to see the watermill’s inside workings, now restored to full performance. Though the couple should not engineers, they clarify that: “We did do analysis into how a lot hydraulic pressure was wanted to maneuver the millstones, contemplating the potential for making the mill operational once more.” As a subsequent step, they positioned Giorgos Papandreou, head of the Service of Fashionable Monuments and Technical Works of Western Greece, Peloponnese, and the Southern Ionian. An architect and engineer with complete information of mills, Papandreou guided them as they constructed a particular 80-cubic-mater water tank to substitute for the stream that now not handed via there. They repaired the mill elements, and water quickly discovered its approach again into the water tower, the trough, and in the end, to the millstones themselves. The architect Areti Ropalidou performed a vital function within the venture as nicely, even bringing charming lighting fixtures from Florence. In 2013, the Kyparissia watermill opened its doorways to the general public, able to grind as soon as once more.

Watching the cyclical circulate of the water right now – the system recycles the identical water, saving pure sources – provides Tzima and Nikos immense satisfaction and pleasure; they’re, as they are saying, “devoted to nature,” and do volunteer work for wildlife organizations as nicely.

Nasos Smerdis took on the roles of miller and host, and might nonetheless be discovered grinding wheat and welcoming guests. With the flour he produces, Nasos and his spouse Anna make cookies, pasta (together with hilopites and lasagna sheets), and trahana, all obtainable on the market on-site. In addition they produce gadgets for his or her now-famous breakfast, together with contemporary bread, fried bread, and different native do-it-yourself merchandise akin to grape molasses, their very own honey, and eggs from their chickens. On a two-acre property with streams, orange bushes, and lemon bushes, tables are got down to welcome friends with do-it-yourself lemonade, preserves and even meze for tsipouro, a powerful native spirit.

“Nasos and Anna handle the mill with nice enthusiasm and love; if it weren’t for them, I don’t know what the mill’s destiny would have been,” says Tzima. She provides that it’s not about revenue, solely about preserving the watermill alive. With that in thoughts, they set up cultural occasions on the premises, internet hosting every little thing from e-book displays to music nights (with notable artists akin to Nikos Xydakis, Ganas, and Mariza Koch) and wine-tasting evenings that includes native wines with all of the producers from Trifylia.

Tzima and Nikos, stuffed with power and concepts, didn’t cease on the restoration of the mill. In addition they purchased and restored a grand mansion from 1820. What’s extra, they established the non-profit group “Program for the Safety and Promotion of the Previous City of Kyparissia,” via which they advocate for the restoration of the Fort and the Previous City and promote the historic significance of the realm. As a part of this program, they’ve printed two historical past books and a photograph album about Kyparissia; funded the research for the stabilization of the Fort’s slopes to allow restoration work by the Ministry of Tradition; and invited famend painters to fill the Previous City with easels and create artworks that had been later exhibited on the cultural middle Athinais in Athens.

Equally fascinating was their invitation to the Nationwide Technical College of Athens, leading to 80 college students and 10 professors learning the homes of the Previous City and conversing with the normal craftsman Dimitris Douvitsas. It’s Douvitsas who comes each time Tzima Imirziadi calls him, even when it’s simply to repair a single stone that’s come unfastened on a cobblestone path. Collectively, they restored the Fort’s fountains in accordance with a research by the Ephorate of Antiquities, which at all times oversees their actions. Resulting from their persistent efforts, the stabilization of the Fort’s slopes and partitions was accomplished final yr, and the municipality was capable of proceed with the redevelopment of the sq. and the undergrounding of the facility firm’s cables.

“If the locals need it, Kyparissia can develop into at the least a brand new Kardamyli when it comes to aesthetics,” says Tzima, who’s proving together with her efforts that every one it takes to maintain Greece lovely is dedication and a love of authenticity.