Mitati - the simple old stone houses
Everywhere in the cultivated regions and in the areas used for grazing sheep or goats, the wanderer on Naxos will come across old small stone houses, the mitáti (singular mitátos). Farmers lived in the mitati when they stayed e.g. for the harvest on their land away from the village, and sometimes a family spent there even the majority of the year or lived there permanently. The shepherds also had a mitátos at each mazomós, i.e. at the shepherds’ places where the animals were milked and the cheese was produced; the cheese was stored in the mitátos.
In contrast to the real houses in the villages, the mitáti were built entirely of stone without the use of wood. The roof consisted of large stone slabs that extended from wall to wall. For this reason, the mitáti could only be fairly narrow; the interior space could be enlarged somewhat by widening the walls inwards at the top so that the distance to be bridged became narrower. The door of the mitátos was small and often framed by large upright marble stones. The mitáti usually had no windows. The roof was covered with earth above the stone slabs, which was rolled with a marble cylinder to seal it before the autumn rains. The mitáti faced towards the usual wind direction with the narrow side; they were usually built in a N-S direction, with the entrance in the centre of the east side. Farmers’ or shepherds’ houses where a family lived permanently, often consisted of two mitáti, one of which served as a stable. The two mitáti were often built at an angle so that the entrance to the house was better protected from the north wind. In addition to the mitáti used to live in, the shepherds sometimes also built small shelters in far away areas where they could weather a heavy rain or storm, but that were not meant to live in.
Small stone-built houses, the mitáti, can be found scattered all over the island.
Some of these stone houses are tiny.
Here you see the roof made of stone slabs.
These tiny huts were not real mitáti, but only served as shelters during heavy rains and storms.
The shepherds built them where there was no suitable house or natural shelter nearby.
A mitátos was a narrow building, usually built in N-S direction, without windows and with the entrance in the centre of the long side (usually facing east).
The entrance was low and often framed by upright marble stones.
While the building is rectangular on the outside, the inside space gets narrower towards the roof, which is achieved by the walls becoming thicker towards the top.
In this way, the space between the walls is reduced so that it can be covered by large stone slabs.
Another typical mitátos (in Ágios Dimítris)
The mitáti had very little furniture. Sometimes thery had built-in niches that served as shelves.
The view in the other direction with another niche and a shelf consisting of a stone slab built into the corner.
The stone roof was covered with a layer of earth.
In autumn, before the first rains, the earth roof was rolled with a marble cylinder to seal it.
In spring, the earthen roofs of the unused houses are often covered with flowers.
Here a larger stone house, also built like a mitátos, but with a stable next to it. Larger houses of this kind were often inhabited permanently by a family.
The entrance is well protected from the north wind, as the stable is built at an angle to the house.
a little mitátos on our hill
The entrance is so small that one can barely crawl through it.
Here a door seems to be built right into a terrace wall: It leads to a hidden room in which the farmers hid their crops or other possessions from pirates. Originally, the entrance was concealed by a bush, for example, so that the hiding place was almost impossible to discover. There are quite a few of such hiding places in terrace walls, although most are smaller than this one.
Many mitáti belonged to shepherds and served as their home and as cheese dairy during the cheese-making season in spring. Here large a mitátos on the hills above Ágios Dimítris.
the usual low entrance
In the house we found this aluminium cup and a spoon carved from horn. The shepherds used these spoons to eat the mizíthra (fresh cheese).
Below follow some pictures of unusual mitáti.
While the vast majority of mitáti are rectangular, near Pánormos exist two remarkable round buildings.
This, as far as I know, ist the only round mitátos on Naxos.
an elliptical stone house, also near Pánormos
On Mávro Voúni near Kóronos, the second highest mountain on Naxos, lies another remarkable stone house – it is inexplicably high.
This stone house is part of a shepherd’s settlement. The house and surrounding walls are built from local stone.
The walls approach each other very much towards the top, perhaps because the local stones do not allow for larger slabs.
Nevertheless, the house is built inexplicably high; it is the tallest stone house I know.
Lastly, a collection of more pictures of mitáti on Naxos.
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