Angelos Sikelianos, the legendary Greek lyric poet and playwright, was born in the island of Lefkas in 1884 and has since come back under the light of publicity, not for his poems, but for one of his villas in Greece’s Xilokastro located near the city of Corinth.
Sikelianos, along with his American wife, Eva Palmer, had a wonderful villa in a location full of mature pine trees and flowers.
Following his death, in 1951, the Greek shipowner Spyros Typaldos bought the villa along with the land that surrounds it.
Typaldos decided to renovate the impressive villa and bring it back to life. His plan was to make an atmospheric Italian restaurant that would operate next to his hotel which was owned by his family.
The house combines three architectural styles: The ancient Greek, the Byzantine and the Venetian.
Both Eva and Sikelianos shared a passion for ancient Greece and architecture; actually the villa was designed by Sikelianos himself.
Sikelianos managed to combine thousands of years of Greek history in only one villa.
It hosted some of the most notorious Greek authors and poets such as Karyotakis, Palamas, and Kazantakis.
Even the former Greek Royal family spent time there, with King Paul and his mother Frederica revelling in the Corinthian sunshine.
The villa shares a long history of people confiscating the property before it ended up in the hands of the Typaldos’ family. Italians and Germans took over the property during their occupation as well as Greek guerrillas during the civil war that ensued.
Nowadays, the villa is accessible to everyone for free as the Typaldos’ family wanted this important chapter of modern Greek culture to be shared with the public.
Read more at greekreporter.com
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: άγνωστος License: CC-BY-SA
