The sea-captains’ mansions of Spetses, Greece

Sea-captains’ mansions, Spetses

“I’m going to Spetses for a few days. Do you want to come?”

When my friend made this suggestion over the phone, I immediately dropped my pen, tossed a few items into my travel bag, and was ready for my next island getaway in an instant. Greece’s gift to the world are its islands. You can go from one to the other with the same ease that you can choose a delicious appetizer from a menu. 

The author at the veranda of the Poseidonion Hotel, an iconic landmark of Spetses

In the early days we would go aboard the Neraida, floating slowly on the Saronic Gulf like on some old steamboat. Later came the Flying Dolphins, or at other times a friend’s sailboat. These days, all you have to do is get on the Attica Highway that was opened just before Greece hosted the Olympic Games in 2004 in Athens, and you can be on the shore opposite Spetses in a short time indeed.

The Old Harbour of Spetses

Even though the charm of the Corith Isthmus may have been lost as it was no longer visible from the new road, it was a small loss as the Peloponnese, in its entirety, is full of charms. My friend and I just chatted about anything and everything that came into our minds as we speedily made our way to Spetses, bypassing Mycenae and Epidaurus, just slightly off our course.

“I have to show you the two Delft vases I found  when I was cleaning out the storage,” my friend said. “They‘re from the 17th century, and if I search a little more, I’ll probably find another two. Do you think Christie’s would be interested?”

I had no idea whether Christie’s would be interested in a pair of Delft vases, but another pair that she found in the basement, wrapped in yellowing paper from the last century, brought her a bit of luck at an auction in London.

The entrance of the Economou mansion, inlaid with pebble mosaics, Spetses

The old house in Spetses which she had inherited from her parents – both Athenian born, but whose families had originally come from the island – was the traditional residence of sea-captains, and exemplifies a style and time long past.

It was these forefathers, the captain-owners of brigantines who travelled from the Mediterranean to the North Sea and loaded their vessels with extravagant objects with which to decorate their island homes, and which their descendants today gaze at, quite unsure what to do with them. Oh yes, there was much wealth on the islands.

“Do you think they were pirates?” she asked me.

A three-masted sailboat crossing the straits between Spetses and the Peloponnese

She included my forefathers, who were not from Spetses, but from nearby Nafplio - inland of the Peloponnese - and whose ships raced across the Mediterranean from Marseilles to Smyrna, from Trieste and Livorno to London, and for which we have only testimony passed through the ages by word of mouth as they were Ottoman subjects and no longer Venetian when the possessions of the Serenissima fell, one-by-one, into the hands of the Ottomans.

The 350-year old mansion of Laskarina Bouboulina, Spestes - it is open to visitors

Entrance to the Laskarina Bouboulina mansion - it is open to visitors

“Stop being so dramatic,” I told her, “our ancestors weren’t Barbary pirates. Let’s just more elegantly call them corsairs and consider that their corso was within the realms of the law.”

The corso, from the Latin word cursus, which meant a naval voyage, was indeed considered a legitimate act according to the naval law existing in the Mediterranean at that time, derived from the older Consulate of the Sea (Consolat de Mar) whose original archives could be found in Valencia and Barcelona, and which were later certified by the Pope.

The veranda of the Orloff restaurant looks over the Old Harbour with its stunning palette of colours

I don’t know why Spetses inspired us such associations with the corso as it was approached via the barren hills of the northwestern Peloponnese without encountering any villages along the way. Perhaps its tiny size had attracted wave upon wave of maritime history in Greece, just like the neighbouring island of Hydra, and you caught a whiff in the air of the captains’ aura, just like you can catch that of the now defunct Repubblica Marinara of Amalfi in southern Italy.

A corner among the captains' old mansions, Spetses

And there it is, finally before us:  its small expanse stretches along and rises slightly, while a pine forested area tumbles down to the shore from behind a hill, and beyond is the vastness of the Aegean Sea.

A view of the old captains' mansions

 A lilliputian island, where there’s no room for mass tourism – and this remains its hidden charm.

Summer menoirs from the book : GREECE, The Dance of the Seas