Page 84 - NUMO INSPIRATION MAGAZINE 2023

FO L LOW

While ceramics
are the main draw,
Margarites also
boasts charming
traditional
architecture,
historic churches
and monasteries,
a beautiful local
gorge, and a
handful of tavernas
serving authentic
Cretan fare in the
shade of leafy
mulberry trees.

somehow seems like the most natural thing
ONE OF GREECE’S
in the world. The rooftops and terraces of
FOREMOST CERAMICS the quaint traditional buildings are adorned
with climbing jasmine, cascading bougain-
CENTRES, MARGARITES
villaea and sprawling grapevines and their
IS A BASTION OF ARTISAN doorways and balconies are lined with an
extraordinary number of earthenware pots
POTTERY AND CRETE’S
and vases of all shapes and sizes, many
EXCEPTIONAL CERAMICS growing fragrant summer blooms and fra-
grant herbs, many
HERITAGE
If it seems that ceramics are ubiquitous in
Margarites that’s because pottery has, over
centuries, been fired into the village’s DNA.
Its very name seems to derive from a Byz-
antine word for pottery, suggesting that the
village was originally founded by potters
drawn to the area for its natural beauty
and rich clay deposits. The ancestral skills
have been passed down over generations in
a pottery-making tradition that seamlessly
links Crete’s ancient Minoan civilization with
the present. Today the area is part of the
Psiloritis Nature Park, part of the UNESCO
Global Geopark network and praised for
its superb geodiversity, and Margarites
is home to approximately 20 workshops ISTOCK BY GETTY IMAGES
where skilled artisans still use local clay and
traditional knowhow to produce fantastic
works of pottery and ceramic art. •

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