Geometric building facades – Pyrgi, Greece
September 29, 2012
Here are some photos I took last June in the medieval village of Pyrgi on the Greek island of Chios. Intriguingly, as you can observe in the following photos, the majority of building facades in this village are decorated with distinctive black and white geometric designs scraped into painted cement, known as xysta.
The xysta are reminiscent of the Italian Sgraffito, a form of decoration which stems from Genoa.
Some buildings are completely covered, including the undersides of balconies.
Looking down one of these narrow roads one feels as if they are in a kaleidoscope.
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Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome. Glad you enjoyed it!
scraped into the concrete? does the scraping provide the contrast, or are the designs accented with paint? thanks for sharing! z
Basically a layer of paint/plaster is applied to the concrete and then scraped away to reveal the dark grey concrete layer.
it’s lovely, and i would like to attempt a tiny test on some concrete! so i’d need to start with a dark concrete beneath.. hmmm, sounds a bit like scratchboard! thanks so much! z
Wow, it’s awesome!