Villa Galini

An interim post while I enjoy family visitors from downunder. I will be seeing this mansion and much more from the sea tomorrow as we take a 'cruise' around the harbour by water taxi. 

Villa Galini, a neoclassical mansion built in 1892 by a wealthy  greek family.   It sits on a slight slope just above the sea.  Many great personalities have stayed here, authors and artistes.

Galini translates as peace or tranquility.

Every guide book, tourist site on Poros, notes the building and the people who have stayed there in years gone by but it is essentially abandoned.  The building has been closed up for as long as I remember except for a short period during the nineties when it was opened up and the rooms let out.






Just another beautiful mansion.  What makes it stand out is the mellow colour of the red brick, the tangle of bright bouganvillia cascading down the front and around the terrace and its imposing position right above the sea. 




What a place to write or paint!  Imagine being on one of those high terraces where Marc Chagall, Henry Miller, Greta Garbo, Lawrence Durrell and Greek poet and Nobel Prize winner Georgios Seferis drank cocktails and possibly found inspiration, or distraction.



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The view from its terraces must take in all of Poros harbour, the procession of boats, yachts and fishing tratas, the tiers of  village houses and clock tower.   Most impressive would be the radiant oranges and reds of the evening sun slowly disappearing behind the mountains on the mainland Peloponese, the mountains that climb  up from the seaside village of Galatas to the remains of the german fortifications on its summit.