The sea-captains’ mansions of Spetses, Greece
“I’m going to Spetses for a few days. Do you want to come?”
The traditional sea captains’ mansions of Spetses. Photograph by Barbara Athanassiadis
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.
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 author on the veranda of the Poseidonion Grand Hotel, an iconic landmark 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.
The entrance to the Economou mansion, inlaid with pebble mosaics, in Spetses. Photograph by Barbara Athanassiadis
“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 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.
The 350-year-old mansion of Laskarina Bouboulina in Spetses, open to visitors
Entrance to the historic mansion of Laskarina Bouboulina
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.
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.
“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 veranda of the Orloff Restaurant overlooks the Old Harbour, a stunning palette of colours. Photograph by Barbara Athanassiadis
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.
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.
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.
Old captains’ mansions bathed in the last rays of the sun. Photograph by Barbara Athanassiadis
A lilliputian island, where there’s no room for mass tourism – and this remains its hidden charm.
In my book GREECE, The Dance of the Seas, I recount cherished summer moments spent on Spetses and across the Greek islands of the Ionian and Aegean seas.