3X Awarded Blog on Cultural Travel since May 2012 focused on Cultural Heritage & Ecology. Here you find authentic posts in En/Gr thoroughly edited and researched with MY PHOTOS.
The approach is that of a traveller’s vision for a safer world, where everyone is free to find home, a safe space to experience love and to explore playful creativity.
2012 © Copyright. All rights reserved – revised MARCH 2019, August 2023
All photos are mine, taken through the years. Text and photos are Copyright protected as all in this blog.
Lighthouses may look terrifying when they stand isolated up on the rocks at the mercy of waves, flogged by the wind, occasionally catapulted by lightings or haunted by a shadows in the moonlight.
From the height of its solitary presence, austere, minimal, the light keeps blinking at regular intervals, emitting comfort and predictability: I am here to remind you, the light signals rhythmically, that the harbour is nearby; just a warning, a reminder, do not fear but stay aware, there are hidden rocks, sail safely.
Lighthouses at the tip of a peninsula mark endings, the end of trip, nod that you have reached shore. They may provide a stop, touching base or a solid ground where one takes a breath to restart, to continue the journey.
Lighthouses can also be seen as points of debarkation, of fresh beginnings.
Here is the lighthouse of Agios Nikolaos at the tip of the peninsula of Kokka which borders the gulf of Vourkari, one of the safest natural ports of the Mediterranean sea.
The lighthouse is located just opposite the main port of Korissia in the Aegean sea.
The History
Built in 1831 by The French Company of Lighthouses, it is one of the two oldest beacons in the Greek network. It is the first that was ever lit in Cyclades and the second in Greece.
It belongs to the traditional Greek beacons, the square type, with a height of 8 meters and focal height 32 meters.
The lighthouse is built on the ruins of a temple of Poseidon.
Today it looks like a whitewashed stone fortress glued to the church of Saint Nicolas, protector of mariners in the Christian faith.
Where the affluent industrial community of Kokka used to be, today there are only ruins to be seen as we walk at the seaside towards the lighthouse.
Warehouses and housing facilities were built here at the end of the 19th century by the British owners to store the coal supplied to passing steamboats on their way to the busy ports of the time, those of Syros or Chios.
The peninsula traversed by the trail leading to the lighthouse lies like a camel with three hunches.
On top of the one hunch/hill of the peninsula stand two square ruins built of rock, still erect, resistant to the weather and the human neglect. They are supervising inside and outside of the harbor.
At the time Kokka was providing what its name reminds of, coal, here was the SIMATOREIO where men sit assigned to signal (send sima/sign) when a boat was approaching and helped it navigate safely inside-out (pilotagio) of the bay.
Many visitors of the island will be attracted to watch the stunning sunsets here.
Do not miss the historic associations connected with the narrow string of land known as the passage of Katsonis.
In August 1789 captain Katsonis, a Russian officer turned-pirate to combat the Turks in the Aegean, escaped from the Turkish fleet at this exact point. He found his ship entrapped in the bay of Vourkari; it dawned on him to pull the vessel, buttered with pig fat, over wood planks placed on the rocky soil.
Katsonis escaped, but the repercussions were catastrophic for Kea by the enraged Turks.
You may read more on the marble inscription.
Film & literary associations
Every time I walk to the lighthouse the experience is refreshing and different. It changes depending on what I come here to find, and it changes by the season, the time, the quality of light, the strength of the wind, the state of the sea.
All kinds of mood and impressions, real life memories and emotions related to films watched, or books read are superimposed when we find ourselves in the natural proximity of any lighthouse, as this is a favorite scenery in movies and fiction of every category from thriller to mystery to romance or adventure.
Which scenes from a film set in a lighthouse come to your mind?
Have you read Virginia Woolf’s novel ‘To the Lighthouse’?
Is there a poem or a painting that this landscape brings to mind, that you would like to share with us – in the comments – or with your companions?
I think that our imagination and memory is enriched the more the references, so that each location becomes alive to us if it is wrapped up with images and a wealth of emotions.
A photo of a lighthouse at sunset like the one I put at the introduction of my post tends to repeat itself in social media because we all love it.
But there is a danger of repeating the ‘picturesque’ and turn it into cliche’. The 3Dimentional of the location becomes flat as a card postal massively reproduced.
It becomes lively, personal again if we inflate it with substance, that is with stories. If we turn the passive location into an active narrator.
Then we can establish a relationship with it, we can interact, understand, care for it, its present, its past and its preservation.
We are not property owners but custodians of anything on this earth.
If you were to write your own script set in the Lighthouse which atmosphere would you choose? Would you choose a sunset or a stormy day, a night? How would your story goes? The characters, the plot? Give it a try! Share in the comments if you like.
A number of my blog posts in English – most also available in Greek too – may enrich your experience from visiting or living in Kea/Tzia.
Please always refer to your source if you share in social media.
Wishing you a resourceful and enjoyable journey!
2012 © Copyright. All rights reserved – revised MARCH 2019, August 2023
More bilingual posts about Kea from an insider’s point of view, if you navigate my blog:
Take a walk in the unseen side of the Greek island of Kea, from the Byzantine times
Archaeology/Mediterranean:
Athens hosts ‘Princesses’ of Mediterranean at the Museum of Cycladic Art
Texts and Poetic prose with photos from the island of Kea:
Walking by the sea after a long winter…
A tree is blooming at the Greek island of Kea/Gr
Rewarding stops at Chora or Ioulida of the Cycladic island of Kea
More about Greek Lighthouses in the LIGHTHOUSES OF GREECE http://www.faroi.com/
Urban travel tales 
Leave a comment