Megalo Livadi in Serifos

  

 

Megalo Livadi is a picturesque coastal village 13 km west from the Hora. It counts just 50 inhabitants today but in the past it was highly developed due to the iron-ore mines that flourished in the area in the 19th century.

 

We took a taxi to get there as the buses stop running in September when most of the tourists have left. Having heard about the strike in 1916 we wanted to see the remains of the mines where such an important struggle had been waged for better working conditions and justice.  (Post to follow).

 

 

 

 

 

We had a wonderful day there. Situated on a deep bay, with palm and tamarisk trees by the shore, and protected from the winds, the village was the perfect place to be on the day that the winds raged in the rest of Serifos.

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing we saw was this derelict grand house. Built by an architect of the Ernst Ziller school which influenced by the Saxon architect who later became a Greek national and who designed many of the neo-classical buildings in Athens, it is a wreck now. It used to be the headquarters of the mining company.

 

 

 

 

It must have been very impressive in its heyday.

 

It was left abandoned when the mine closed, and then two years ago there was a major fire in the region and the fire finished the building off.

 

 

 

 



High on the hill on our right we saw this villa and decided to explore it first.

So up the hill we walked






It's a mixture of Cycladic and modernist architecture, and it really works - it's beautiful.






This is as far as we got

Razor wire everywhere, and above the villa we could see the dovecote, a feature in a lot of the Cycladic islands: Andros is full of them. From the 13th century onwards aristocrats started building dovecotes as pigeon breeding was a privilege of the aristocracy.

The views from here were spectacular

 

 

and they included a view of the mining ladder which is across the bay

 

We then walked down the hill

 

 

and visited the small church of Saint Nicholas






that overlooks the bay.

 

After visiting the mines we walked down to the village again needing some lunch

 

There are two tavernas by the shore and we chose the one called Cyclops - legend has it that in ancient times Serifos was the home of the Cyclops

 

 

 



 

 

on one of the hills on the side of the bay you can see one of the numerous caves of the island where the Cyclops were supposed to live

 

 

 

 

 

quite a few people were having lunch - we gathered that people come here in their cars with the sole purpose of having lunch in this taverna

 

not surprising really, as the food was cheap and delicious

 

 

 



 

and the views were wonderful.