Islamic art on a greek island's harbour by an armenian...
Inside the only mosque perserved in the city of Chania, second city of the greek island Creta and capital of the perfecture with the same name, one can find nowadays temporary art exhibitions, open most often afternoons and nights during summer. That means, exactly at the peak touristic time of the outer and western harbour (Tombazi coast) one can keep sometimes distance from the noisy crowd and lose oneself in the insides of this mosque with the mystical atmosphere of other times... The Janissaries* Mosque presents an unusual sight with its cubistic shape covered by a large hemispherical dome without a spradrel supported by four elaborate stone arches and dates back to the second half of the 17th century. It was erected in honour of Kioutsouk Hassan, the first garrison commander of Chania in 1645 but was heavily damaged by the World War II bombings. After a research conducted by the 13th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, it has been discovered that there used to be an one-roomed temple in its current position.
The temple Kioutsouk (small) Hassan or Giali Tzamissi (seaside mosque), as it was commonly called, a brilliant sample of Islamic art of the Renaissance was a work of an Armenian architect and stopped operating in 1923. Today it is restored without the small and pituresque minaret, which was demolished in 1920. For a number of years the Information Office of the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) was housed there and it has been also occasionally used as an Archaeological Museum of Chania, a storehouse, a Museum of folklore art, while recently has served as Antiquity Department of the Harbour and as an event and exhibition hall. 
*
Janissaries:
Greek-born and Muslim-raised paramilitary units that laid down the law with particular brutality.
At the quay of the old Venetian harbor of Chania Town during the rule of the Ottoman Empire in Greece and Crete, the Turks often took children from the Christian families, raised them as Muslim and conditioned and trained them to be brutal law enforcers, so called the Janissaries. The ones of Chania Town built this mosque around 1650, in one of the most high profile and privileged spots in town. In 1690 their power and arrogance had grown so much that they murdered the Pasha of Chania and it is said that they fed his body to the dogs behind the mosque.
Μunicipality of Chania
Chania travel guide, Chania country (Creta, Greece)
Summertime in Greece
Loutsa is a small village on the east coast of Attica, 2km away from the ancient temple of godess Artemida - that's way Artemida is the second name of the place - and 38km away from Athens. In its beach one can find a thousand treasures, not necessarily ancient ones, but those of everyday life: peaceful moments and the definition of beauty...carved in relief on the gold cover of our existence
a dark spot that travels like a fish
in the dawn calm of the sea and you see it:
a void everywhere with us. [...] "King of Asine", George Seferis (one of Greece's most important men of letters ever, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963), Assini, summer '38 - Athens, Jan. '40
Chalkutsi, Oropos, St. Apostoloi, Shinias, Nea Makri, Zoumberi, Spata, Rafina (a harbour from where many ships depart to several islands of Agean Sea), Loutsa and Porto Rafti, are to be found in (and consist the) Eastern Attica, which is the east part of the larger perfecture of Athens, capital of Greece.
Spata are known world wide since the Athens International Airport is situated there, after having moved recently from the area of Elliniko.
Rafina is another harbor (the second largest one of the greek capital after Piraeus, first harbor of the country) from where ships take passengers to the islands.
