Abstract
Τhe limited acknowledgement of wood as one of the most significant parts of Greek cultural heritage, despite its continuous and versatile exploitation, leads gradually to the degradation of valuable wooden structures of the past, due to biological factors and implemented renovations, especially in areas such as the Cyclades islands, where the shortage of wood production forests has created the distorted view of the absence of such constructions. The present thesis aims to identify and record the wooden structural or stable decorative elements and mechanisms that were constructed until the end of the 19th century in the Cyclades islands (Folegandros, Milos, Kimolos, Kythnos, Anafi, with emphasis on Sikinos island) and to analyze the most typical and remarkable ones, by specifying the wood species used for their manufacturing, with a view to contribute to the highlighting, acknowledgement and protection of them. Ιn reference to the building constructions, most of the old structures are m ...
Τhe limited acknowledgement of wood as one of the most significant parts of Greek cultural heritage, despite its continuous and versatile exploitation, leads gradually to the degradation of valuable wooden structures of the past, due to biological factors and implemented renovations, especially in areas such as the Cyclades islands, where the shortage of wood production forests has created the distorted view of the absence of such constructions. The present thesis aims to identify and record the wooden structural or stable decorative elements and mechanisms that were constructed until the end of the 19th century in the Cyclades islands (Folegandros, Milos, Kimolos, Kythnos, Anafi, with emphasis on Sikinos island) and to analyze the most typical and remarkable ones, by specifying the wood species used for their manufacturing, with a view to contribute to the highlighting, acknowledgement and protection of them. Ιn reference to the building constructions, most of the old structures are manufactured using the «flat roof» technique, involving visible beams, which vary in shape and species of wood depending on the island and use, although, in most cases, almost unprocessed logs of the species of juniper, native to several islands, were used, whose short length determined the dimensions and proportions of buildings. Concerning the utilization of wood in mechanisms construction, all islands include abandoned windmills, some of which retain the whole or part of the old mechanisms, with the highest number of them being found in the islands of Kythnos (6 mechanisms) and Folegandros (5 mechanisms), while the lower number is detected in the island of Milos, as the majority of windmills have nowadays been converted into houses. These mechanisms generally have the same basic characteristics, although some differences were identified in the individual components and wood species, which are various, showing however some specialization and almost exclusive use of hardwood species. Regarding the hand-crafted wood carved iconostases, their number is high in most of the islands, although the products transfer has been a laborious and costly process in those days. Most of them are located on the islands of Sikinos and Milos and only few of them on the island of Anafi, while Sikinos island includes 13 old churches bearing wood carved iconostases. Many of them constitute exceptional artworks, constructed mainly with cypress wood, although in mainland of Greece mostly wood from hardwood species was used, a fact strongly associated with the influences from the island of Crete. As it was concluded in the present thesis, the Cyclades islands have a great wealth of old structures, partly or entirely made of wood, which constitute an important component of the cultural heritage and have not yet been acknowledged, unlike other areas of Greece. Particularly the island of Sikinos, which has preserved its traditional wooden structures to a considerable extent, could become a «model» island for highlighting the wood-related cultural heritage, as part of properly organized management, which will be consistent with a new way of attracting tourism and primarily with the respect to the protection and preservation of this unknown cultural treasure of Greece.
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