Pyrgos is a village on the Aegean island of Tinos renowned for the craft, which dates back hundreds of years here.
With the craft passed down through dozens of generations, it comes as little surprise that the village resembles an open-air museum. Family crests on snow-white houses, iconostases, public fountains, signs and smaller objects all reveal that marble is an intrinsic part of life in what is Tinos’s second-biggest settlement after the main town, Hora.
The reputation of the marble sculptors of Pyrgos (also known as Panormos) has traveled beyond the island, as they have taken part in major restoration projects, including the Acropolis in Athens, but also abroad.
A volley of pings from hammers striking stone rings out from the Pyrgos School of Fine Arts as students learn the craft. The school, which belongs to the Greek Ministry of Culture and is funded by the Evangelistria of Tinos Foundation, is instrumental in propagating the tradition of marble crafts.
“We have students from all over Greece, who come here because they want to learn how to work marble either for art or to do restorations,” says sculpture professor Leonidas Halepas, a graduate of the Athens School of Fine Arts who returned to Greece recently after several years abroad.
Halepas has run the Tinos school for the past three years and together with teachers in painting and marble sculpting teaches some 40 pupils. “It’s a three-year course that is open to all age groups. Our students are aged from 18 to 45 and 35 percent are women,” he notes.
The school, which has been in operation for 63 years, is also a stepping stone to the Athens School of Fine Arts, as it offers two scholarships a year for the respected institution.
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