Siatista Mansions

In Siatista today, there are some 60 Mansions, reflecting the typical middle to high class housing of the area. They are in various stages of deterioration. Some of them have survived and are being preserved, others have been left to eventually die. The local Cultural Society, Markides Pouliou, has saved one of them, The 'Dolgiras Mansion', and has faithfully restored it. Now it functions as a local Cultural Museum and is a marvelous site to visit. Some other Mansions are open to the public, such as 'Poulko's Mansion', 'Nerantzopoulos Mansion', 'Argyriadis-Maliongas Mansion' and more, which are referred to below. These, too, could make use of many more funds needed from the relevant authorities, beyond the small amount of money currently allocated by them. This Photo Album is our effort to make the existence of these architectural masterpieces known to the widest public audience possible; we hope to create a strong public opinion to strengthen the pressure on those authorities responsible for the salvage of these Folk Art Monuments.

This Album will be constantly enriched in the future, so please include this page in your 'Favorites" list for you to be able to easily revisit us!
(Photos: Michael Tziotis)

• Poulko's Mansion
• Nerantzopoulos Mansion
• Dolgiras Mansion

Poulko's Mansion

Poulko's Mansion: Yard Gate	Poulko's Mansion: The Sign on the Gate
Poulko's Mansion: Back (Northern) View The three protruding logs, clearly visible, used to hold the second floor WC which, according to the sanitary regulations of the time, should be outside the main building.	Poulko's Mansion: Northern Outer Face The scaffolding is there to prevent the building from collapsing, remnant of some minor presevation work in the past
Poulko's Mansion: Stained Glass Windows on the Façade	Poulko's Mansion: Stained Glass Window on the Façade One of the two depicted in the previous photo
Poulko's Mansion: Stained Glass Window Detail Through the Scaffolding	Poulko's Mansion: Deco Drawing on the Façade Upper Floor Outer Wall
Poulko's Mansion: Outside View	Poulko's Mansion
Poulko's Mansion: Drawing on the Side to the West, Second Floor Showing the year the mansion was finished.	Poulko's Mansion: Wine Barrels in the Basement
Poulko's Mansion: A Fantastic Ceiling	Poulko's Mansion: Another Fantastic Ceiling with a Square Navel Woodcarved and painted. Ceiling 'navels' are square, rectangular, penta- or hexagonal and are the heavily decorated central part of the ceiling. Sometimes there are woodcarved fruit hanging there!
Poulko's Mansion: A Decorated Corner	Poulko's Mansion: Older Photo Without the Scaffolding
Poulko's Mansion: Decoration of the Walls	Poulko's Mansion: Vintage Yarn Winder
Poulko's Mansion: Stained Glass Window, Inside The same window as the one on the sixth photo on this page, as seen from the inside.	Poulko's Mansion: Second Stained Glass Window, Inside One of the two windows on the 5th photo.
Poulko's Mansion: Imposing Ceiling	Poulko's Mansion: Impressive Decoration of the Fireplace Hood
Poulko's Mansion: Impressive Decoration of the Fireplace Hood, Front	Poulko's Mansion: Impressive Decoration of the Fireplace Hood, Detail
Poulko's Mansion: Ceiling Navel	Poulko's Mansion: Same Ceiling Navel (detail)
Poulko's Mansion: Incredible Cupboard ('Missandres') Door Decoration	Poulko's Mansion: 'Tsiatmas' Second Floor Building Technique The mansions' ground floor was robustly built of stone. The top floors, on the contrary, were built of very light and anti-seismic materials (logs, cane, hay, tiny pieces of wood and plaster, as clearly visible in this photo). The whole thing was internally and externally whitewashed and decorated.
Poulko's Mansion: Hexagonal Woodcarved Ceiling Navel	Poulko's Mansion: Another Fireplace With Stained Glass Decoration The square pieces of glass were drawn on the inside and then put in position
Poulko's Mansion: Another Fireplace With Stained Glass Decoration	Poulko's Mansion: Another Fireplace With Stained Glass Decoration (Detail) Detail of one of the decorative glass pieces
Poulko's Mansion: Part of Ceilng and Wall Decoration	Poulko's Mansion: Constantinople (Detail of Wall Decoration) Important cities-trading centers in Europe were depicted in many mansions. More so Constantinople, the City of the Cities, the legentary capital of the fallen Byzantine Empire. In case the artist had never been in those cities, he based his work on a detailed description by those who had.
Poulko's Mansion: Carved Decorative Patterns (Detail of Wall Decoration) Most of the times, walls were decorated with drawings. In some exceptional cases, as in this one, the decoration was the work of a sculptor.	Poulko's Mansion: One More Decorated Ceiling Navel
Poulko's Mansion: One More of the Windows Superb stained glass decoration, with the Two Headed Eagle, emblem of the Byzantine Empire. Those folks were daring! Some one hundred and fifty years before Siatista was liberated, they dared to put up Byzantine emblems over their fireplaces or drawn in their windows!	Poulko's Mansion: Decorative Carving Between Two Windows Notice the Holy Cross on top of the one to the right.
Poulko's Mansion: One More Decorative Carving	Poulko's Mansion: Vintage Dusty Clock Imagine how beautiful and decorative it would be when it was well looked after!
Poulko's Mansion: Cupboards in the Wall	Poulko's Mansion: Another Decorative Pattern
Poulko's Mansion: Everyday Utensils Hanging Around in 'Mesia' or 'Embate' (Entrance Hall in the Basement)	Poulko's Mansion: One Of the Stained Glass Windows As seen from outside.
Poulko's Mansion: Back Yard Entrance To the Basement

• Poulko's Mansion
• Nerantzopoulos Mansion
• Dolgiras Mansion