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KEA
Leaving behind the land of Attica in search of the "world of the islands", the traveller sails along in the open sea to see the westernmost inhabited Cycladic island : KEA. The view of the barren coastal landscape, prepares for a similarly barren view of the island’s inland areas. The newcomer will therefore be surprised upon arrival in KEA (TZIA) as soon as he gets into the large safe bay of Agios Nikolaos and lands on the mole of Korissia. Inland areas of colourful vegetation with deep gullies, verdant mountains, covered in oaktrees and dotted with cottages will gradually spread before the traveller’s eyes… Among them, in a prominent position, lies Ioulis, an amphitheatrical complex of superb architecture, the mountainous community which determines with its presence the life on the island. Discovering TZIA will ravish the restless, sensitive traveller. He will often be magnetized by a singular, almost never before experienced appeal. It seems that there is a primeval, eternal sanctity oozing out everywhere on the island… an irresistible power arising from nature and fed by an overwhelming historic past. This sanctity, as feeling or experience, for those who will appreciate the qualities of TZIA, has been reflected and included in the natural and human element of KEA for thousands of years. The human achievements and the mystery of nature compose an unbreakable entity, illustrating a complete panorama of the "archaic lifestyle". This depiction could be compressed in the phrase "the magnificence of Kean humbleness", assuming that magnificent is what has resulted, been preserved or evolved within six millennia of civilization, stamped with the plainness as well as the self-sufficiency of life on TZIA. That is, if we consider magnificent everything on the island that has remained unchanged, pure, mystic… TZIA is the caring Mother showing ineffable affection towards her children… At the same time it is also the Maiden, the girl of the "just and modest sword", who reveals her hidden charms with rare discretion, on conditions that he who will dare to mate with her, should be absolutely pure… These charms are preserved with extreme care in the rustle of the leaves of a perennial oak-tree or the endless pounding of the waves against the craggy headlands, or perhaps in the broad smile of a secluded villager!
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