Intangible cultural heritage

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History

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th (period of the Cretan State), Chania was a cosmopolitan city. Senior European peacekeeping officers, admirals, military escorts, consuls, Prince George’s court, as well as a local bourgeoisie with villas and cottages on large farms, were an elite following Europe’s footsteps. The urban clothes but also the traditional costumes, silver knives and  photo studios of the city of Chania were adapted to the European standards since the customers in this city were of high demands.

However, the place also went through successive waves of turbulent historical periods. Enemy invasions, conquests, revolutions, liberation struggles and in between periods of prosperity. The 1960s marks the beginning of a period of influx of finished industrial products. Industrialization and the advancement of technology did benefit but marginalized folk culture. Folk art began to decline. Useful objects, tools, utensils and old means of transport were abandoned. Craftsmen and traditional professions no longer have a reason to exist. In Chania few craftsmen are still left, who stubbornly and lovingly want to maintain the traditional professions. They are the last romantics.

The areas:

In old days the arts and professions were located in specific areas, depending on their subject. In fact, in many cases, especially in the cities, some similar professions created a “neighborhood” which was determined by these professions. The name of the neighborhood was also an element of identification.

So we have Tabakaria, ie the area where the tanneries were located, Neoria, ie the place in the port where ships were built or repaired, Demirtzidika, ie the area where the ironworks were located, Bitsaxidika, ie the area with knife workshops, Stivanadika (cretan boot workshops), Vareladika (barrel workshops), the street with the photo studios etc.

Activities and occupations that may have been disturbing, such as the tanneries because of the smell, or the soap factories because of the smoke, were established on the outskirts of cities. Some other professions chose the area where they would operate based on the commerciality of the area, which is why barrels were usually found in ports, bookbinding near law firms and carriages near the central market.

Apart from the craftsmen who constructed every day useful objects, Chania has a long tradition in  professions related to arts. Photographers, instrument makers, typographers and cinema projector operators. Historic landmarks for the city center, such as the Kipos cinema, right next to the historic Kipos cafe, were meeting points and added a cultural dimension to the city’s long history.

For the most part, the old professions have left no building footprint in the city. However in some cases the old buildings still exist, often with passersby unaware of the use these buildings had in the past. The impressive Neoria buildings (old Arsenals) were built by the Venetians.  These Arsenals where ships were built and repaired, as well as the karnagio building that we encounter in the direction of the old lighthouse in Chania are mainly old buildings for the passersby. It is unknown the karnagio stone building was a shipyard, where ships were repaired until recently by a family of shipwrights.

The northern sea axis:

From antiquity the culture of Crete spread through the sea. The northern sea axis of the city of Chania functioned mainly as a port of trade, import of raw materials and export of the abundant harvest and goods of the inland of the island.

Good social organization and maritime trade on the coast, brought growth to the city, but still the image of the ports always included amateur or professional fishermen, despite the fact that the interest of the locals was mainly focused on the fertile land and livestock that brought even greater profit.

Many monuments of history can be found in the northern axis of the city. The Neoria buildings (old arsenals), the chimneys of the old soap factory of ABEA. and the tanneries in the area of Tabakaria  are the three key links of a very old chain, while within the city an important landmark related to trade was and remains the building of the Municipal Market (Agora).

Today, although most of the old professions have disappeared, the names have remained in some neighborhoods, to remind us of the past. The industrialization sidelined many arts and professions because they no longer had a reason to exist. It is therefore destined for the arts and professions to be abandoned and lost one by one. Some professions and some arts may disappear completely. Others will survive based on the tourism market and a few remaining romantic clients.

Some professions have survived to this day because the craftsmen are looking for a way “take it a little further”. Maybe because there are still a few customers who are looking for quality, something unique  with strong signs of a personality, of the manufacturer and of the one who orders it.

Modern needs:

Craftsmen, who mostly worked with their hands, were unable to compete with what modern human societies demanded of products. Mass production. Along with mass production the contemporary need  for uniformity in the products was born. A craftsman who uses his hands, even if he treats molds or patterns, can not succeed or is not interested in uniformity in the works he constructs.

The demands for something cheaper, even if it is of mediocre or poor quality, but which can be easily replaced, have turned people to imported industrial products.

It is the fate of tools and materials, when they no longer have a reason for existence or use, if not thrown in the trash, either to be used for a different purpose or to be deposited in museums and collections. There is no longer a reason to sew clothes, since you can find a variety of ready-made ones in the market. There is no longer a reason to look for blacksmiths, because the industry produces everything a coppersmith could make at a low cost.

In ancient times, almost every village had coppersmiths and in the cities the coppersmiths were a guild. Potters, barrel makers, shipwrights and furniture makers are declining.

The advent of plastic, an extremely lightweight, durable, inexpensive and easy-to-use material, has sidelined ceramic pots, wooden barrels, wooden boats and even chairs. The turn of man towards the easy and the practical, makes him ignore other parameters since he now considers them insignificant or secondary. The aesthetics and the use of natural materials do not matter any more.

Plastic containers, plastic barrels, plastic boats and plastic chairs have now entered our lives. At a time when the advancement of electronics has made it possible to reproduce texts in digital immaterial form, where a reader can read his newspaper or book through a screen, it is destined for typography to shrink and the work typographers remember doing, to decline day by day.

Mass-produced products, remove from man what was once an element of human nature – the need to stand out. In the past, when a customer ordered a garment or a musical instrument or a piece of furniture, or a bookbinding, he could ask the craftsman to add some elements that corresponded to his aesthetics or even to a particular taste. These days belong to the past.

Today:

In these days, modern production forces you to choose between specific available products, knowing that the product you hold in your hands has been produced identically, as an exact copy, in thousands or millions of copies.

When the old craftsmen are gone, since there is no interest for continuity, they will take with them the secrets of their art. In order to learn these secrets, they had to serve two or three years as assistants next to older craftsmen. This slow process transferred the basic knowledge to the students. Each one created his own style, his own special imprint that made his creation even more special. It was often so recognizable that it stood out not only to his fellow craftsmen, but also to the craftsman’s clients.

The empirical knowledge that people acquire after engaging in an art usually leads to this unique identity their creations have. The construction of an object, however, becomes even more complicated when the shape of it, also determines the sound it produces. Something that applies to the manufacture of musical instruments

The dim future:

When an art is lost it is like burning a library. The concentrated knowledge and experience of constructing tools and choosing of materials is lost. The unique vocabulary and unique terminology in the naming of tools, techniques and materials is lost too.

The koumpasa, the zumbades, the tserkia, the kambzedes, the tehrilia, the doyes, the berdedes, the perones, the tresses, the masouria, the anti, the stimonia, etc.(greek words for useful objects used in old professions) are tools and materials that are destined to disappear, since they will not be used in the future. Inevitably we will also stop hearing their names. 

Time passes. When people are gone they will take with them a concentrated experience and knowledge that we may never know. Memory cannot be preserved if we do not realize the necessity of preserving it.