Kastellorizo
— a harbour that holds its colour all afternoon.
Not only on a wall.
“The smallest of the Dodecanese, the last Greek island before Turkey. A horseshoe harbour ringed by neoclassical houses painted ochre, rose, washed blue. The fleet has thinned to a few caïques. The Blue Cave on the south coast turns the water inside a shade most people remember from childhood and cannot name. About five hundred people winter here.
Kastellorizo, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Kastellorizo, officially Megisti, is the easternmost inhabited island of Greece, lying about two kilometres off the southern coast of Turkey and roughly 570 kilometres from Athens. The island covers around 9 square kilometres. Its population was over 9,000 in the early twentieth century; the resident population today sits at around 500, concentrated in a single harbour town on the north coast. The island joined the Greek state with the rest of the Dodecanese in 1947, after Ottoman and Italian rule.
The Blue Cave on the south-east coast, called Parastas locally, is one of the largest sea caves in Greece, roughly 75 metres long and 35 metres high inside, accessible only by small boat through an entrance under two metres tall. Sunlight enters under the surface and refracts upward through the chamber, lighting the water from below in the clear cobalt the cave is named for. Mediterranean monk seals still occasionally rest inside. The trip from the harbour takes about thirty minutes by caïque.
The island is reached by catamaran from Rhodes, roughly four hours, or by short flight several times a week on a twin-prop aircraft from Rhodes Diagonios Airport. There are no large hotels; lodging is in restored neoclassical houses around the harbour. The Italian-era market hall and the Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helen are both within five minutes' walk of the quay. Most visitors come between June and September. Winter ferries are weather-dependent and often cancelled in north-wind weeks.