I wander around desolated villages full with ruins. That was the answer to the question “What are you doing during your vacations?”Almost 4 years passed since the time I began to conceive differently the villages of my homeland.When I was younger I had few contacts with the people living there.The only strong memory I have from the village, is when some Sundays me and my family used to visit my great-grandmother in Kritsa (my village).I still remember the mysterious and enigmatic appearance of her, with her long white hair, always dressed in black, standing on top of the grand staircase in order to welcome us.For some unknown reason all the rooms in the House were closed and dark.The place we used to spend most time when we visited her was the kitchen.There she used to cook us eggs in the frying pan with broken yolk and she also offered us my favorite sweet bergamot.When I moved to Athens, all these memories I had, It was like they came back in order to take their revenge.In one of my short trips back to my Crete, I visited the ‘’ secret ‘’ garden with orange trees, located by the Riverside in my great grandmother’s village.There came to my mind the idea to visit all the villages of that stunning and unique region. Sometime later with my friend George, we started visiting the villages most of which were full of ruins.We had to deal with much rain, dust, and cold, dangers to get injured to record and to collect the lost memories of previous decades we have no single idea about.
The architecture may be something as vital as the air we breathe. We Breathe shapes, colors, images, memories,history and beauty. So today it’s sumptuousness to talk about saving and enhancement of our architectural heritage?