Restoring medieval tower house near Sparta as life project

[Music] and a one-off okay one two three five four three two [Applause] here we are close to the southwest point of Europe actually mani Peninsula is one of the three peninsulas in the south of Peloponnese in the center and historically is the most important for approximately 400 years Greece was under the Ottoman occupation every part of Greece but money the whole peninsula was free they didn't form a state of a country but they had a governor who had some negotiations with the Turks but in any case it was free land and there was no army here or police to enforce the law so the law in a way was in the hands of the local families and clans they had to report the governor but actually in the everyday life they had to report to their families only so they developed this structure of towers in order to defend themselves from the neighbors it is the saying that when man is didn't fight the Turks fight themselves it was also very important that state of Liberty the head for 400 years gave great help to the Greek revolution since they had a very well-trained and equipped army here after the war that place was abandoned massively they couldn't survive here that place is not very friendly in matter of cultivation they had to fight with all this tough land to survive hello healthy to me the road here arrived in 1978 can you imagine 78 yesterday you see the sassy we first went to the moon and then the world arrived in Bahia and that was the thing there was a difficult communication between the villages from mainland so they developed communication with the rest of the world by the sea maybe the kids would love to have the traditional Greek drink from cherries cherry soda or say cherry cherry cherry juice juice yes and for you some treats from my mother with just this little settlement was a typical manual colic Simoni from the prefix a which means a distance from something as we say so no foria and money which means alone as we say monotony monography so exa mone is a small family settlement which is made mainly by a certain family who leaves the main settlement the main village because they lost a war with a neighbor or they cannot stand the neighbor or they have children to defend the family so they make their own village literally with that war towers with a watch tower with a cemetery with an olive press with this church so this is a family village that's why you will seen money small settlements extra small in size because they belong to different families that's why they had so close between for example people who lived here in caste resettlement and those guys over there in that little castle across in order to protect their families that's why they have all the stone protection in their windows in order to be able to shoot the enemy from the window and sometimes you can see across in that tower there is a whole body kind of protection for someone who should standing that's why they had all these protections for the same for the building itself the doors are low we have to bend somebody who wants to intrude in the building he has to bend to go through that small door and be vulnerable to the hot oil or hot water someone can throw him from the window and actually this is our this is the kitchen five by five meters walls are included this is the trap door which goes to the second room all the rooms were interconnected you can see how they head on those days wooden ladders in case of emergency and close that trap door when they are on the upper floor they had moveable with the latter so they can take the ladder up and leave the intruder down you see how we formed these steps here so actually you immediately turn from the last step of the hood and letter to the stone steps of the vault and go up this is what we call water flow in Greek we call this kind of communication between levels in money water flow they say coming from you see they shaped these steps that's original yes we just put the railings that building was up to this level here it was up to here up to here that stone was existing inverted so we just completed a building according to the coordination and the sizes of the tower and we managed to have this mezzanine with a boat latter your children would feel very nicely here to go up and down through that boat later to the next level so this is a place exactly so for example we we didn't know the height of this door and we went to Bahia village we saw the height of this balcony doors in Bahia and we did simply the same so here was half door in the original building and we completed the door and we found the size of this balcony and two wooden stools for the guests to sit enjoy the view and come to the stars maybe this is yes that was the size of a typical balcony in the area don't forget that all this these buildings have been used for hundreds of years so maybe some additions belong to later generations exactly how did you come here and find I came as a groom I met my wife in the School of Architecture and that I wanted to propose her back in 1994 and I say okay let's go to your motherland she knows the area very well and we were passing by that Sunday of March of 1994 outside of here and we stopped with our friends were group of friends and we saw a ruin and we assumed actually half of the upper floor was missing and nothing was around here is and we assumed that the view from here would be nice and there was a sign for sale in one of the corner stores of the building it was a great great surprise for us so we first bought the building and then we decided what to do with that we tried to make our presence and as less important as possible it took us eight years to complete this project we always in the course of these eight years always were questioning ourselves if we did the right thing an important part was the mortar outside the color of the mortar which gives you that feeling that this tower is standing there forever it is not something new we didn't took the patina of time out of the building this is a little small hotel guest house with three rooms we try to make little spaces for our guests so he doesn't feel limited at the end of the day we don't want our guests to admire the place and then leave do we brought this olive-trees the big holiday trees to create shade for our guests these are all yes 100 years or more this is a typical manage room with a vault they had that technique since they couldn't use cement they used wooden frames to support originally the stones to make the vault and then to block the stones with the last line of stones and to make the vault as the arch in the Catholic churches where the stones in the middle block the whole world they had plenty of stones and wood no cement so that's why all their technique was this system of parallel vaults one over the other and each arch had the sidewalls going all the way down that's why the walls on the ground level are more than 1.5 meters thick something like six foot thick walls because they hold three four vaults in the different levels we had to change the mortar three times to absolutely integrate the building to its natural environment for example here what kind of lighting you put on a wall which is curved you realize that you don't need a lighting but a bare bulb because then you leave the stone untouched so the bathroom looks like it's one University yes the outside walls in your structure but inside we have left it as it was this is a kind of inside staircase to be able to go to the terrace above through here but you can't actually because now you can actually go because later on we closed it so it's a simple shower with an old marble yes it's an old sink which was inside a wall that was the side inside the wall and we put it the other way so someone who comes in the door cannot be heard from the tangles of the corners of the sink but we can see how the marble was inside the wall and this much is very much goes very well with the stone how hard was it to get plumbing in here we were liking this point because all the villages in the area survived with cisterns there is there is quality you see how they make this door to the next room this stone holds all the vault so it's a very important stone and there is another one which keeps don't forget that there is an earthquake zone at the south of 10 Iran it is the second deepest point in Mediterranean so these buildings have suffered hundreds of earthquakes for hundreds of years they suffered from mother from water water washes the connected element between the stones if one vault opens then the water comes and washes next on an external bended but not the earthquake here who had to form a bathroom we didn't want to make a separate room of the wall as in previous cases we chose the extra modern approach of having a glass cabin with a rain shower next to an authentic World and Korean structure for the bathtub and sink we just formed here a single bed it's the only stone bed in the building it was a space and there was an arch a vault which was had fall so we kept this part we found as a memory of that vault and we completed the lost vault with a modern structure and also we completed a kind of bench which was here for family use to use it as a bed with by adding mattresses and pillows this is another vault arch which is very low not very but it's low it's lower than the other rooms so you have this cozy feeling a different atmosphere here and always with these touches of modern Lighting's or modern furniture just furniture not audience yes furniture so it could keep the the original walls in original space and attached that latter goes the trapdoor on our kitchen and reception level so all the rooms are interconnected and now we go up a family can communicate from the inside from room to the other another movable de lattre and again these steps beautifully shaped on the vault right that's why you can see regularities of the original builder right mind your hand here so and we put latches from both sides so everybody is safe feels privacy right so this is our kitchen and my reception it's just small footprint isn't it yes kitchens again it's not built in yes it has freezer or drawers yes it is it is an object it's a furniture this over here it's called Baltimore it is one furniture here in more furniture here that's it the generator last week we gathered our ground fields and we made about 200 kilos of olive oil here they made the votes but they had poor elements like stone from the place the stone work off the vault is not special that's why we preferred in this case to cover the stone wall with this stucco to give this also and another impression Stukas is first traditional Greek technique they used to make it on-site in holes in the ground by pushing us with this yes and ceramic materials to take ceramic to make a powder of ceramic to mix it with limestone and to make that mortar for their stucco surfaces or the mortar for the stones right so here this is a very important stone because if we take the stone out then the vault will start gradually to deteriorate that's what happens in in the remoted ruins one stone of the vault falls down and then the rest start deteriorating continues and we founded it so we didn't dare to touch the the architecture of the building it has survived for centuries with earthquakes and all these issues now I know Bravo's we're so nervous today it was yeah physically this was done we'd like to have techniques and materials are authentic for the area we believe that every guest as we say in our language he can read with this eyes the patina of time on a building you can see the authenticity of the renovation although maybe he's not an expert of that he can understand it this is the window towards the original path which means that name defends to the window so you can target and shoot the enemy with protection of the stones they would control the path and watch every moment who is coming who is going is he an enemy is here friend because this actually defense is very strategic yes you can see the whole area by having this contact eye contact with your luminous nowadays gives us the opportunity to have internet here so we from here a little bathroom the only world with bathtub so that a mezzanine so this gives you space for an extra bed for next bed and that's our family room for member family and the last staircase which goes to the roof we can see the village of capella shows the village of alika and the port of hero Luminas which was a very important port for the last 100 years for the area because a ship was coming almost daily from Athens to bring supplies and to take the products these people had for sale to Athens that's how they survived always the communication through the sea that's a flag a cross and the four beasts from the world basil in greek means king so it's the four beasts would have the form of a fire fire look like fire and the four beasts king of the king who kings those who want to be kinked very petition of the world basil which is king so now you can clearly see that that that's sort of the last part of the what was it done of village where you called Simoni and that was according to the theory they higher the better here was the captain of the village the most powerful person who had this fortified building to defend his old family and the whole settlement he made rules okay he made the rules this is our next project we acquire this property and we make plans having the experience of this place and having knowledge of modern materials nowadays in the market we shall keep this building and we shall add the missing parts in a way that you can identify what was missing and what is old and from outside the building will remain unattached we can secure the building without touching his outer surface we shall keep the main building as the public space of the hotel and then behind the building on these terraces we shall nestle the rooms because we have noticed that one of the main criteria for our guest is privacy this is our next project because okay a little guest house with three rooms it's it's a hobby rather than a profession so I know that to be able to expand we will try for something even better by the way that was the path going to the rest of the area until 1978 that was the path people used to go to the rest of Tanner an area through that path for hundreds of years that was their way to communicate with the rest of money I think they they walk a lot what does that take to make a rule to take a ruin and that must be a huge project yes yes sometimes the locals in the course of this 8 years sometimes the locals made some jokes about us like what are you doing so many here so why do you change the mortar three times why are you paying so many attention to thing be careful it drops off the edge there okay okay well I think it's our interest our desire to offer to our guests authentic staying money how these people used to leave you should try this Nico explain what it is yes the first the first season you know I had to prepare so many things as you said the signs everything so I forgot the welcome treat I want you to my mother I said give me something tomorrow we're going to open have nothing to give to our guests and I took a liquor from the heavy made things old women do from herbs from their poles and I took this and I I noticed I guessed like it every year she makes for us honey cinnamon and we're from all over the world and we can enjoy sitting on a stone fence touching the stone everybody from everywhere can appreciate this feeling this feeling here [Music]

Channel: Kirsten Dirksen

Views: 2,750,690

Rating: 4.901432 out of 5

Keywords: abandoned tower, abandoned architecture, abandoned village, medieval ghost town, medieval town, ghost town, self sufficiency, ecovillage, eco-town, adaptive urbanism, lean urbanism, stone architecture, stone construction, craftsmanship, craft building, architectural heritage, xemonia, mani peninsula, greece, peloponnese, ottoman empire, greek independence, fortified tower, converted tower home, converted fort home, boutique hotel, tainaron blue retreat, medieval tower house

Id: A6S82xVitTw

Length: 28min 50sec (1730 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/0xD153A53]

Where can I buy a medieval tower?!

[u/albusb]

This channel has a great playlist called "Revived Ghost-towns" -most are old or ancient and in Italy. It's really good videography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB3e8xwu_Do&list=PLMRx8kgwkvhLv5QJ0orzZCO-OXg_xLnIA

[u/10lbtest]

Soooo cool! 👍🏼👍🏼

[u/redonkulousness]

What an absolutely beautiful country.

[u/strange_relative]

19th century is not medieval.

[u/charley-12068]

If only I could do this.. it would be a dream come true

[u/destroyer2007368]

What is this assasions creed odyssey