Summary
Georgios Tsotsos,
Masons from Dolos (Vythos) of Anaselitsa (Voio) in Peloponnese.
One of the most famous mason-villages of Western Macedonia is Vythos (before 1927 Dolos) in the municipality of Voio (before 1927 Anaselitsa). Based on quantitative data of 1914-1915, we conclude that, among the other villages with people who worked as wandering stone masons of Voio and Grevena (map 1), Vythos was the third, in absolute number of masons and the second in percentage of masons in the total number of male inhabitants. Wandering mason groups from west Anaselitsa traveled to Peloponnese to work (mostly building houses), from the last decades of the 19th century until the Second World War. Their travels lasted from two to ten consecutive years. In this paper, the geographical dispersion of masons from Vythos to Peloponnese from 1885 to 1939 is investigated, through three historical sources: a mason's notebook, another's memoirs and local newspaper articles.
The masons from Vythos worked in 83 places in Peloponnese (time period 1894-1937), as follows:
Prefecture of Corinth, 11 settlements
Province of Argos, prefecture of Argolida, 26 settlements
Province of Nafplio, prefecture of Argolida, 3 settlements
Province of Kynouria, prefecture of Arcadia, 13 settlements and a monastery
Province of Mantineia, prefecture of Arcadia, 13 settlements
Province of Gortynia, prefecture of Arcadia, 1 settlements
Province of Lacedaemon, prefecture of Laconia, 9 settlements
Province of Gythio, prefecture of Laconia, 2 settlements
Prefecture of Messinia, 3 settlements
Prefecture of Ileia, 1 bridge
Most of these settlements are in the east Peloponnese, in the area from Corinth to Gythio (map 2). Masons from Vythos were not found in the Argolic peninsula, east of the Corinth - Nafplio line. They are not, also, found in the province of Gortynia (except one village). They worked in both, lowland villages, like the Argolic plain, the Arcadian plateau and the valley of Evrotas, and hilly areas, as well as in mountainous and isolated villages. Additional information is provided about the hard life of the wandering masons: they were not payed by the contractor in some cases, they suffered from malaria, and, sometimes, they married in Peloponnese and settled there. It also seems that some young boys from the villages where the masons worked, who wanted to become masons, apprenticed in mason groups from Vythos.
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