Thanks to Mr Google ... Answer to Suzie and Ross's question.
White is popular only in the 30 or so islands of the Cyclades, where house owners in the 1880s started using whitewash as a cheap and durable alternative to paint. It also served as a natural disinfectant due to its oxidizing qualities, which relieved the owners from the burden of acquiring bleach or other expensive (at the time) cleaning materials.
Eventually, this trend became so dominant and fascinating that by the 1930s regulation was passed that prohibited the use of any other color on new buildings in an effort to promote homogeneity.
Interestingly enough, prior to the 19th century, Cycladean architecture was dominated by rich and contrasting colors that were actually closer to classical architecture from antiquity than to its current form we are familiar with.
Buildings that weren't involved in the whitewash trend in the 19th century (owners were wealthy enough to buy real paint...) are exempted and still maintain their original color. In some places, those buildings are so many that they change completely the "white on blue" island landscape:
Elsewhere in the Aegean, where the whitewash phenomenon never developed, white isn't popular at all. Stone architecture deriving from medieval Byzantine architecture is more prominent, like for the Dodecanese close to Asia Minor:
Thanks to Mr Google ... Answer to Suzie and Ross's question.
Elsewhere in the Aegean, where the whitewash phenomenon never developed, white isn't popular at all. Stone architecture deriving from medieval Byzantine architecture is more prominent, like for the Dodecanese close to Asia Minor:
White is popular only in the 30 or so islands of the Cyclades, where house owners in the 1880s started using whitewash as a cheap and durable alternative to paint. It also served as a natural disinfectant due to its oxidizing qualities, which relieved the owners from the burden of acquiring bleach or other expensive (at the time) cleaning materials.
Eventually, this trend became so dominant and fascinating that by the 1930s regulation was passed that prohibited the use of any other color on new buildings in an effort to promote homogeneity.
Eventually, this trend became so dominant and fascinating that by the 1930s regulation was passed that prohibited the use of any other color on new buildings in an effort to promote homogeneity.
Interestingly enough, prior to the 19th century, Cycladean architecture was dominated by rich and contrasting colors that were actually closer to classical architecture from antiquity than to its current form we are familiar with.
Buildings that weren't involved in the whitewash trend in the 19th century (owners were wealthy enough to buy real paint...) are exempted and still maintain their original color. In some places, those buildings are so many that they change completely the "white on blue" island landscape:
Buildings that weren't involved in the whitewash trend in the 19th century (owners were wealthy enough to buy real paint...) are exempted and still maintain their original color. In some places, those buildings are so many that they change completely the "white on blue" island landscape:
Elsewhere in the Aegean, where the whitewash phenomenon never developed, white isn't popular at all. Stone architecture deriving from medieval Byzantine architecture is more prominent, like for the Dodecanese close to Asia Minor:
Thankyou DR google Pete.
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