The 1st Drystone-wall School of Andros Island is a fact!
The 1st Drystone-wall School of
Andros Island was successfully completed, where the 20 participants were
trained in the construction and repair of drystone walls and went into greater
depth on the importance of terraced landscape. It was organized at Korthi, 6-13
November, in the framework of the LIFE TERRACESCAPE project.
After seven laborious days, November 6 to 12,
two of them with a strong pounding of the Andriote winds, the twenty drystone-building
trainees of the School, can be proud of the 70-meter terrace they restored, at the
field right next to the complex of the “Holy Trinity” of Korthi, where the
training took place. All this was carried out with undiminished enthusiasm,
despite the constantly accumulating fatigue. They can also be proud of the
knowledge they received from the three craftsmen of the School. Knowledge that,
as the trainees stated, will be unfolded on restoration of small walls on
Andros Island and elsewhere.
In the afternoons, after the arduous mornings,
the trainees of the School had the opportunity to attend lectures related to
the terraced landscape and its importance from an economic - developmental,
environmental, ecological and cultural point of view. A “cushion” of
theoretical basis for what was given to us as a legacy, for our responsibility
- our future.
It is customary for the seventh day to be a
day of rest. It was dedicated only to the farewell dinner, where we discovered
that creative action does not tire, on the contrary, it gives wings on the
feet.
The eighth was a day of hiking around the fields
of the Monastery of Zoodochos Pigi, which are cultivated by the Project, and
the worthy to be cared for and restored dry stone buildings that once supported
the agricultural production here - now ruins!
The building complex of the “Holy Trinity” of
Korthi was, for seven consecutive days, mornings and afternoons, the hospitable
center of the School. White and stone aesthetics, a functional environment for
the pandemic situation we are experiencing, and above all an educationally
emblematic space: the first school of Andros in pre-revolutionary Greece, and
one of the first in our country!
Thanks to all those who participated in any way and role, leading or secondary. Special thanks to the Environmental Education Center of Korthi for its hospitality, the craftsmen Iraklis Gavras and Giannis Papadopoulos from Andros, as well as Dimitris Lagos from Epirus, who together with the architect Eleni Pagratiou kept unwavering the passion of the trainees for knowledge; the speakers for the knowledge and the documented experiences that they provided to this School; the project’s partners who contributed to the School (the Municipality of Andros for the organization of the excursion, the University of the Aegean for the long-lasting preparations and the support during the event, the University of Athens, the Green Fund) and all the trainees. We hope everyone shares the joy offered by the 1st Drystone-wall School of Andros!
