Spetses Island
Spetsai or Spetses? Both are feminine plural endings, the former classical and official, the latter modern demotic Greek. ‘Spetsai’ still appears on maps, but ‘Spetses’ is the local and popular name. Its
history has been much bound up with that of Hydra, but physically they are very different islands. Spctses is comparatively low-lying, and well wooded. Its classical attribute was pityoussa, meaning ‘pine-clad’, and the Aleppo pine still softens the outlines of its hills. The air itself is resinous and has a tang and an uplift which is such a contrast to the sullen heat of the mainland in midsummer that you can understand why the inhabitants of Navplio and other towns in the Gulf of Argos first built summer houses here. Spetses in truth be¬longs less to the Saronic than to the Argolic Gulf. An airfield has been built at Porto Heli on the mainland only a few miles away, and frequent ‘flying dolphins’ bring holidaymakers across to Spetses after a short flight from Athens. This can be a useful link in reverse as expeditions can be booked from here to Epidavros and Mycenae.
The landing point for the hydrofoils, whether they come from Porto Heli or Piraeus, is the long concrete jetty which forms the tiny harbour of Dapia. It is not only small but shallow, and visiting yachts have to anchor in a bay to the east, sheltered by a headland with a lighthouse at its tip. This was the old harbour, or Limani, which is still a centre for shipbuilding. From the quay the ground rises at once, and you sense a more relaxed atmosphere than prevails on Hydra, with a sequence of cafe tables ranged along a shaded terrace which overlooks the harbour. Not that they are not desperately crowded at times, when service seems impossible within half an hour of an order, but again in contrast with Hydra the town has space to expand along a lower coastline in either direction. Its streets ramble pleas¬antly away from the sea, with no motorized traffic to disturb them, but as you move further along the front to the east standards begin to
drop; bars and restaurants become cruder, and the town beach of Agios Mamas is as unattractive as most of its usual occupants, if that is possible.
However, if you persist in that direction, you come round a head¬land to the bay of Agios Nikolaos, called after a dignified and peace¬ful monastery which overlooks it. The katholikon is still in use, with an interior in the modern Greek style, but not as grating as some. The distinctive thing here is the black and white pebble decoration which paves the approach road and the large open courtyard at the west end of the church. Its designs of anchors and ships, birds and beasts, are much more lively and imaginative than the formal pebble patterns you see elsewhere - in the forecourts of the Evangelistria on Tinos, for example. There is even a portrait of Bouboulina, the Spetsiot heroine of the War of Independence.
Beyond Agios Nikolaos the road follows the coastline to the head of the bay which formed the ancient harbour of Spetses. Here you can better imagine the days of her commercial and naval importance: ships of all kinds at anchor, smaller boats drawn up on the hard, warehouses along the shore, and above all the skeletons of ships under construction in builders’ yards. It was one of these yards which gladly accepted a commission from Tim Severin, that indefatigable retracer of ancient steps, to build a twenty-oar galley such as might have carried the Argonauts to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece.
The new Argo was built here in the yard of Vasilis Delimitros by traditional methods with traditional tools, from technical drawings made by scholars in England. You can visualize the scene - two or three men (never more, or they impede each other) at work, shaping the stem and paring them with adzes. Like all the old hand instru¬ments, scythe, plane or axe, the adze evokes from its operator a satisfying and beautiful rhythm. The arms swing, the wrists twist and the body sways deeply. Whether the launching was attended by the equally traditional ceremony of cutting a cockerel’s neck and smear¬ing the bows with its blood is not recorded.
On the far side of the headland where the lighthouse stands is the bay of Agia Marina, the most popular of the island beach resorts. You reach it by one of the main town thoroughfares which continues to the coast past a line of noisy tavemas. The metalled road ends shortly after, but a fairly good unmetalled road continues all round the island, taking in a few other holiday resorts on the south coast. These places are generally reached by small boats plying for hire in
Dapia harbour, for the only wheeled transport in Spetses is the horse-drawn ‘garry’ which prefers to keep to the metalled surfaces.
The horse carriages are just as popular with the Spetsiots as with the tourists, and are not, as in other islands, seedy contraptions only intended to provide expensive local colour. You may be passed any¬where in the neighbourhood of Dapia by a well sprung vehicle rat¬tling along behind a well groomed and high-stepping animal. A modern hydrofoil may be met on the jetty by a carriage which em¬barks a whole family - granny, children, dogs and all - on the way to
spend a weekend with relations.
The name Dapia properly belongs to the broad esplanade to the west of the harbour, where the eye is at once caught by a more than lifesize statue of the Spetsiot heroine, Lascarina Bouboulina. Her story is bound up with the outbreak of the War of Independence, when on 3 April 1821 Spetses claims to have been the first of all the islands to join the revolt against Turkey. She took command of her husband’s ship after he had been killed in action, using it as a priva¬teer in irregular warfare against the enemy. She is presented here in the baggy-trousered piratical gear of the period, with a pistol and a cutlass stuck in her belt. A pair of flashing eyes commands the scene, the pupils emphasized in black, just as they are in the pebble portrait outside the church of St Nicholas. A casket containing her bones is one of the exhibits in the Museum, which occupies the former resi¬dence of a Spetsiot notable called Hadzi-Ioannis Mexis. This is a somewhat gloomy neo-classical building in one of the back streets, which seldom seems to be open.
The other story of the period is of the day when a Turkish fleet appeared off Spetses to the dismay of the islanders, because their own troops were away on another operation. The women responded to the crisis by putting red fezes (worn by Greek as well as by Turkish soldiers) on all the asphodel plants which grew along the shore. The ruse worked, and the Turks sailed away without daring to
attack.The more civilized quarter of the town spreads out past Dapia to the west through the greener suburb of Sourbouti. This is where Greeks have built their holiday homes, where the restaurants are in a higher class, and where several hotels occupy pleasant sites. The metalled road passes below the extensive estate of Anargyrios Col¬lege, half-a-dozen very large residential blocks in neo-classical style set in formal gardens. Until the advent of a Socialist government this was the Greek equivalent of a British ‘Public School’, and must have
made an enjoyable start to life for those lucky enough to enjoy it. Only the young inmates are missing, for the gardens are well kept up, and the accommodation can be used for residential courses of further education. The boys also enjoyed the use of an athletics stadium and an open-air theatre built after ancient Greek models on the hillside above. The whole institution owes its existence to a Greek adventure-seeker called Anargyros, who left Spetses for America in the 1900s as a penniless boy and returned to his native island a very rich man. It was he who built the enormous ‘Edwardian’ hotel which overlooks the esplanade and the statue of Bouboulina - a hotel which is still in business and discreetly patronized by those who can afford it.
Beyond the College is the well placed Xenia hotel, and then the road climbs by way of ‘Blueberry Hill’ (really a beach-cum-chalet development) into the most attractive part of the island. It winds through pine woods several hundred feet above the indented coast¬line, where only a scramble is needed to reach some lovely coves. A few houses show up among the pines, and the road turns inland by a shady valley to the small church oiZoodochos Pigi at Ligoneri (both are suitable names, for Ligoneri means ‘little water’). This part is well served by streams and springs, and close behind the church is a water-filled cave in the rock face which is said to have been con¬nected by an underground passage with the monastery of Prophitis Ilias (which you will not be surprised to find in the centre of the island) - later blocked by an earthquake.
The road becomes even more beautiful as the asphalt surface ends and you enter an area justifiably called Paradissos. A rough track diverges downwards to the bay of Vrellou, with a sandy beach at the foot of a leafy valley. Thereafter the coast road becomes rudimentary, but it does continue to the distant bay of Zogaria and the beautiful inlet of Lazaretta. It cuts across the extreme western headland to complete a circuit along the south coast by way of bays at Agia Paraskevi and Agii Anargyri, and the more sophisticated centre of Xokeriza (next to the island’s main football ground).
It would take some time to explore Spetses properly. There is another rough road which climbs from Dapia into the central hills and winds its way down to Vrellou on the north coast, but it would be time more agreeably spent, perhaps, than in the crowded harbour bars and cafes. An ideal island for a holiday, one concludes, if only other people would stay away!
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