The old harbor at Hania with its slightly askew Turkish lighthouse, mole, mosque of the Janissaries, its magnificent Venetian arsenals and its still operative fishing fleet, together with the medieval maze of Old Town that faces onto it make up a living masterpiece of the Mediterranean heritage. Needless to say, the debate over its preservation and restoration is an important and heated one.
A century ago this month the British Museum acquired what is known as the Aegina Treasure, but its true provenance is still mysteriously linked with sponge fishermen and grave robbers -as well as Syria, Egypt and, above all, Crete.
In the last 30 years, Athens has seen some of the most intensive supermarket development in Europe. But, in spite of these mega operations, small shopkeepers are still well alive.
In its heyday Aegina was the foremost commercial sea power in the Mediterranean and said to employ 470,000 slaves. Today, the island more modestly boasts cultivating the world’s finest pistachio nuts.
Commemoration of this anniversary means above all honoring those who gave their lives in the struggle, 20-31 May, 1941, and the subsequent four-year resistance to the German occupation of the island.
The Museum’s deputy director, Amalia Yeroulanou, talks about the rearrangements and extension which will make it the only institution in Athens which displays the whole sweep of Hellenism under one expanded roof. Unfortunately, the neighbors are complaining.
