“The plain of Mesoghia abounds in vineyards and olive groves in many places;
therefore, that land is a bearer of vines, grapes, olives and wheat, as it has been famous since ancient times”
Georgios K. Gardikas, “Koropi-Sphitos”, Proceedings of the Archaeological Society, 1920
Land of Spata, bearer of vines, grapes, olives and wheat.
Using these characteristics, ancient Greek literature celebrated the Mesoghia, the area with the most fertile expanses of Attica. Wheat, wine, and oil, the basics for human nutrition, goods that have perennially comprised the “Mediterranean triad”, that were the “divine” gifts of Demeter, Athena, and Dionysus, and still are the essentials for the Christian Orthodox mystery of the Divine Thanksgiving and the burying rituals, have been abundantly produced on this land for centuries.
Vineyards have been cultivated in Mesoghia since prehistoric times. Its plains are still renowned for resin wine, commonly known as retsina, justifying the characterisation “the plains of alcohol”. Mesoghian lands were also densely covered with olive trees, while, in antiquity, the area was known as the grain field of the city, supplying wheat to the infertile and thin-soiled Athens.
The northern part of the Mesoghian valley constitutes the plains of Spata. Its crops have survived over time, resisting wars, territorial disputes, fires, pests (Phylloxera and Dakus), droughts, and many other risks. Fields with vineyards and olive groves, threshing floors, dry stone walls, remnants of farmhouses with storage spaces and workshop facilities related to wine production, wine presses, as well as newer farmhouses whose form and structure has been dictated by everchanging agricultural processes, all together constitute landscapes shaped by the passage of time and the people living off the land.
The exhibition “Land of Spata, bearer of vines, grapes, olives and wheat” seeks to highlight this inseparable relationship between the local community of Spata and its land. Agricultural tools used before the industrialization of agriculture, images and memories, along with local dietary habits and traditions, reveal the productive identity of the place and its people, who for centuries have been devoted to their land and have supported their economy through agricultural production.
