Sketchbook of Aegina by Elias Messinas

SKETCHBOOK #4 AEGINA ISLAND

BY ELIAS MESSINAS

Excerpts from travel sketchbooks in Greece by architect Elias Messinas

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Kolona 14/8 This year we spent quite some time at the Museum of Kolona – we set up the exhibition for the mosaic of the ancient synagogue of Aegina.

There must have been something special about it…

I loved this composition! The vertical column in relationship to the horizontal sea… beautiful!

Then one morning, we took visitors to show them the mosaic and the exhibition and I took the opportunity to also climb up Apollo's Temple. I only sensed it once I returned: the place was full of energy! Siting to sketch, I felt as if the place was energizing me - like filling up my batteries! An amazing feeling! It is not accidental that the temple was built on this site.

Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Aegina 5/2 Looking through my old sketchbooks 23 years later, I discovered this winter sketch from Aegina… It was a short but very rich visit: first I went to the archaeological museum, where I saw, among others the remains of the mosaic floor of the Byzantine synagogue - a geometric mosaic Then stopped at the port for brunch, to Pireaus. At the port I could see the St. Nikolas and the lighthouse. Along the century neoclassical houses… A great treat Athens… Almost forgot: on the way, along museum of Christos Kapralos and the bronze statue of his mother.

Further down the road is the home of Nikos Kazantzakis…

of the 4th century CE. before taking the boat double dome church of promenade the 19th a short boat ride from Kazatzakis road, is the

Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Plakakia 22/8 The lighthouse – Fanari tou Bouza, called locally – has been the subject for many of my sketches.

This time it surprised me. I sketched it from the street level and that revealed to me another – a new!

– perspective! The peninsula with the lighthouse is only another plane before the horizon! Not at the horizon. This allows a strip of sea to stretch behind it…

Something that I failed to notice in all the previous sketches that were drawn from the bottom, at sea level.

It was a very rewarding surprise! The sea became part of the composition.

Not only the background. I really liked it and really enjoyed it once I added the blue of the sea… I did that the blue later…

Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Plakakia 22/8 A refreshing quiet swim at the lighthouse – fanari of Bouzas – named after the nickname of the man who lit up the torch for years (‘bouzi’ means ‘cold’) – and next to the lighthouse the church of Holy Apostles (in Greek ‘Agioi Apostoloi’) – St. Paul and St. Peter. The Moni island in the horizon the skyline of the Peloponese.

Here we spend the summer with family and friends… The lighthouse and the church are so beautiful that I kept sketching them again and again…

Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Kypseli 21/8

Plakakia 17/8 The church of the Zaimis estate.

Now standing alone within the growing vegetation. A really beautiful composition of nature and architecture.

A quick sketch of the church on the main square of Kypseli. We took an exploration visit, went to Maria’s house and tasted their amazing pistachios, and then took the long way back through the fields. Amazing. All this during sunset, then we reached the square.

The sketch is quick – made as the girls bought ice cream at the kiosk (periptero, in Greek) – with the colors added later.

Plakakia 15/8 The Yiannoulis villa (‘pyrgos’ in Greek) in Plakakia. We see it everyday as we walk to the sea. A beautiful composition based on the square.

Perfect proportions.

Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Ellanios Dias 18/8

Paleochora 16/8

Another site of energy!

Here we witness the transition between a pagan religion and Christianity.

Like so many sites, this site was also transformed from a Temple to Zeus to a church. The same materials of the temple, were used for the church. Gigantic stones transformed to serve from one faith to another.

History frozen to be experienced in the now.

Many similar sites – the Parthenon included – have lost this transition moment…

We visited again this year the historic hill with the churches – the medieval city of Aegina.

A beautiful setting created in cooperation between nature – God and man… Ruins return to nature…

Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Plakakia 17/8

‘The mother’ – a gigantic statue in bronze created by local sculptor Christos Kapralos.

A composition that seems very simple but is extremely sophisticated.

Different from every angle as you walk around it…

I remember the house and studio opposite the statue when Chistos Kapralos and his wife Souli were around.

The house was hospitable and open.

Always!

The studio has been transformed into a museum. A beautiful one, a jewel for Aegina. But it is more silent… I still love his gigantic wooden sculptures made of trunks of eucalyptus trees… I remember hearing stories about the locals who would call him up to come and pick tree trunks when a tree was cut down. He was a local and a legend…

Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Plakakia 15/8 Under the tinctures – armyrikia, in Greek. It is perfect. The same site of the lighthouse – fanari tou Bouza – only this time looking north, towards the Leouses islands in the foreground and Attica in the background.

The sea has been a dominating theme this year. Not only in Plakakia, were we spend the day swimming, but also in Perdika, which we visited before sunset in one of our afternoon expeditions.

Perdika 13/8 The seashore and the boats. Some out of the water, and one slowly sinking. As the ruin returns to nature, the boat returns to the sea. It becomes one with the sea.

Soon to disappear under the water…

Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

TRAVEL SKETCHBOOKS

By ELIAS V. MESSINAS, ARCHITECT

Greek-born practicing architect with a focus on sustainable design, graduate of Yale School of Architecture, Bezalel Academy and National Technical University of Athens.

Author of books, catalogues, and numerous articles on architecture. Recipient of research and publication grants from Graham Foundation, WMF and the Getty Grant Program. Founding chairman of international NGO ECOWEEK. Elias’ sketchbooks are being written and sketched since the late 1980s and include sketches, drawings and notes from his travels in cities and towns in Europe, the Middle East and North America.

Elias’ sketchbooks have been exhibited at the Yale Art & Architecture (USA, 1990), the Athens College Theater (Greece, 1995), the Jerusalem Theater (Israel, 2002), the Israel Museum exhibition ‘Journeys’ (20142015), and at the Mosaic of Aegina exhibition at the Archaeological Museum of Kolona (2019). © All rights reserved