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Your own fortress |
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Now is your chance to experience something that will please you, educate you and make you long for more.
The Villa Kouriton has just opened in a mountain village near Rethymno, Crete in Greece. Not only is it housed in a lovingly restored fortress from the 1700's, the owner posesses a unique vision which she wants to share with the world. As everybody knows, ancient Greece is one of the birthplaces of modern culture and knowledge. Many of the lessons learned then are in danger of being forgotten due to our hectic, high powered, get-it-pre-packaged lifestyle.
Give your busy mind and soul a chance to catch up and get back to basics while still remembering the modern conveniences. Remind yourself of how some things were done for thousands of years and learn to do them yourself. Give your soul a blessing in the mountains of this ancient island that is steeped in culture thousands of years old.
You Will Not Regret It!
Kouriton House is located in Janakiana, in the municipality Geropotamos that is 25km (16 miles) from Rethymno. It is a traditional stone built rural mansion. In the house there is a traditional oven house, hay-loft, a store house for old jars and a wine–press. The house was built in 1750 according to the post Byzantine Cretan style that has its roots in the prehistoric type of the Minoan Palace. The main entrance leads one into the oven house and the ground floor, where we can find very old jars that used to keep fruits, wine and of course, olive oil.
Off the dining room there is an apartment with 2 bedrooms, fireplace, and two stone built double beds. In the second bedroom there is a double iron bed and stone built sofas. In the one single bedroom of the house there is two stone built beds, the room is en suite with the house but it has its own entrance from the courtyard. Outside there is stone staircas that leads to the first floor and to the terrace. From there into a living room with the attic, that it has been converted to a small conference room/ibrary. On the first floor there are four maisonetes with antique iron beds and living rooms with traditional wooden sofas. Three of the maisonetes are for 2-4 persons and the fourth is for 3-5 persons.
The atrium passage is illuminated by the stained glass sky light like the Byzantine churches that exist in the area. In every room there is TV, refrigerator, hair dryer, hand made pottery wash basin that are hand painted with olive branches. All the furniture is traditional Cretan, made according to the local folk art in traditional workshops. Old mirrors and the needlework remind you of another era. The guests will be able to admire the sunset, the dawn and the singing of the birds from the forest from the terrace. The only addition in the house was the kitchen, which was set up according to the Minoan architecture. The kitchen is completely equipped and suitable to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast consists of milk, coffee, and mountain tea, many other herbs, cheese, bread, olives and honey. Cretan dishes will dominate using authentic Minoan recipes.
The house is completely and lovingly renovated with care taken to show respect to the components of local traditional architecture and to utilize the space with the oven house and the objects trying to introduce to the public the authentic history.
As a particular interesting sample of the rural residence it was decided by the central council of contemporary monuments to be qualified as a historical and maintained building.
Very close to the house is the village of Perama only 7 km (4 miles) away, where one can find health center, banks, store departments. The village of Panormo where there is the picturesque little port and beaches with fish tavernas is 10 km (6 miles) away.
If we have peaked your interest for more information on the many different activities on offer, ranging from wine production to honey making, to herbal lore, ceramics, Greek language, Olympic history and culture, or yoga, |
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The traditional Kouriton villa in the village of Perama offers educational programs and other rural activities. 1.Olympic education 1.Greek language 2.Cretan culture (music, dance) 3.Ceramics 4.Bouqouet making 5.Bread production and biscuit 6.Manufacture of traditional music instrument 7.Making traditional Cretan clothes 8.Cretan dishes –traditional recipe 9.Seminars about the study of folk culture and the architect inheritance 10.Speleologist meeting:Visit and study of the caves Sfendoni, Melidoni and Zeus Andron 11.Environmentalist meetings and conferences 12.Exhibitions of painting holly art 13.Botany 14.Yoga Kouriton house is a pattern of guesthouses that gives hospitality, during the whole year, for those who love the natural and culturist environment of Crete, the athletic the Greek language and the arts. The house will operate as civilization center, it will be an ideal choice for those who admire the Greek culture and nature. A poet team will read poems in the terrace of the house that its view is the bloomed ravine. Dancing with the modern Zorbas and Kourites Dancing seminars, Mantinadas, Cretan traditional instrument. The guests of the house will have the opportunity to meet the inhabitants of the village to exchange their experiences from their countries and their cultures. The traditional ancient Greek, Byzantine, Cretan wedding with symbols of the nature that symbolizes fertility (wheat, pomegranate, laurel and olive) and symbols from the religion and the tradition. The treatments will represent the Minoan Crete, the Byzantine, and the modern Crete.
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