Day 12 Naxos

Today we took a taxi into Hora, the centre of the city and then walked up to the Venetian castle.  People have always lived in parts of this castle and the Barozzi family have lived here from the 1200’s until 1990.  Now the children keep it as a museum in order to raise money for its upkeep.  Jane, an enthusiastic English guide, took us around the castle, which had spectacular views of the harbour from every window.  The part of the castle that we saw is now called the Della Rocca – Barozzi Venetian museum.  The island of Naxos belonged to the Venetians until the unification of Greece in the 1800’s.  This tower house was built by the Venetians in the 13^th century and is constructed from stones, which are marble and granite and about double the size of our bricks.  Some of the marble stones contain inscriptions that show they come from Byzantine ruins.  The main level of the house was the residence of the Barozzi family and consists of a living room, dining room, two bedrooms, a gallery, a library, a chapel and a kitchen.  The present owner, Jane’s boss, is a direct descendent of the Della Rocca – Barozzi families.  The Della Rocca part of the family was originally De La Roche.  They were French and were descended from the counts of Burgandy.  They settled on Naxos in 1207 during the 4^th Crusade, which took place from 1203 to 1207.  The name change would have been due to the Venetian influence.  The Barozzi family is an aristocratic Venetian family, which has played an important role in the history of the Democracy of Venice.  The family came to Greece in 1204 and conquered Santorini and neighbouring islands.  Later, they became governors of Crete and arrived in Naxos after the seizure of Crete by the Turks. 

The door of the castle was made of solid cedar, which is said to be harder to penetrate than the solid stone - walls.  There are bullet holes in the door from World War II, but the door succeeded in keeping the enemy out.   On the wall beside this door was a marker for the Venetian yard stick which is 83 cm.  Here the merchants would measure the cloth they were delivering to the family, without having to enter the castle to do so.  The views from all the windows, of the port below, were stunning.  There were many collectables in the rooms, most of which had belonged to the family or had been buried in the cellar for many years.  We saw Minoan pots used for storing grain and oil, which wre found in the basement of the building.  Evidently, there are so many ancient coins and jewellery buried around Naxos that the Greek government will not let anyone bring a metal detector onto this island. 

The piano was used and is still used today for concerts.  It is beautifully engraved.  The people who lived here were very short and their chairs are very low to the ground to accommodate this. 

Eleanor Barozzi grew up in this house, which was given to her by her father as part of her dowry when she married.  She was a talented seamstress and artist.  A pyjama sachet has goodnight woven into the lace, the pillow slips were all made by hand and the top of the wardrobe was decorated by Eleanor with a hot needle.  Jane and the family were very generous allowing us to hold and photograph even the most delicate of artefacts.  We were able to flip through Eleanor’s report cars and copy- books.  An interesting part of the collection was a Byzantine coin which instead of being flat, was bent, so that the owner would not have it pulled from his hand while he was purchasing goods with it.  The traders must have been rather dishonest in those days.

After this we went down to the waterfront where a TV programme was being made.  This programme airs live on Greek TV daily from 10:00 am till 1:00 pm. It is usually made in the studios of Athens but in the summer time they come to the various islands and make the programme in the open air.  There was much dancing, singing, music and lots of laughter.

Tonight, Bill and I went to a musical evening at the castle.  We had a father son combination playing the lute and the violin.  The father also sang the local peasant songs of the villages.  We had an emcee who explained what he was singing about.  There were dancers from various villages in Naxos and our emcee explained that the dances were mostly about fishermen going out in their boats on the sea, with the wind whistling and the waves going up and down.  Some of the dances and songs were about love and some were sad.  At the end of the performance they got the whole ordiance up to dance the traditional dance of Naxos.  As this was held in a small courtyrd in the castle, the audience was limited to about 40 people.