Pyrgi

Pyrgi is the most visually distinctive village in all of Greece, possibly in all of Europe. Every building facade in the old quarter is covered in elaborately scratched geometric decoration in black, white, and grey — an effect so complete and deliberate that walking through the village feels like entering an enormous work of abstract art.

The village is one of the Mastichochoria — the 24 mastic villages of southern Chios where the mastic trees grow. Mastic collection remains a livelihood here, and in late summer the trees are scored and their resin crystals harvested by hand, much as they have been for two thousand years.

Pyrgi is about 25 km south of Chios town. Several buses a day connect them, or rent a car to visit multiple mastic villages in a day. The village is small enough to explore on foot in an hour or two; the church of Agios Apostolos, with its Byzantine frescoes, is worth finding.

things to do sight neighbourhood
A story
The geometric black-and-white decoration covering the facades of Pyrgi is called xysta — a technique in which the plaster is coated in two colours and the top layer is scraped away to reveal patterns underneath. Every surface in the village is covered in this way: arches, house fronts, church walls, public buildings. The patterns are based on traditional geometric motifs and no two facades are identical. The technique dates back at least to the 15th century and may be older.