Marigo and Apostolos Pandos, the couple who built the Mansion.

The ‘Dream house’ is a listed historic mansion built in 1905 by the local landowning Pandos family. They, like many Greeks, had moved their base to Alexandria, Egypt, where they had their main business, but still retained close ties to their land of origin. The mansion, one of several family houses, was conceived as a secondary residence and built in an extraordinary location atop a rocky promontory surrounded by blue waters. It is a rare example of a seaside holiday home of that period. Holidays by the beach were not popular amongst locals in Mainland Greece until the second half of the 20th century and seashore land was not considered of much value. Villages and homes were traditionally built higher up in the mountain to protect against pirates.

The ‘Dream House’ was built by highly skilled Egyptian stonemasons with stone extracted from the rocky promontory itself. It is interesting architecturally, as the form is typically neoclassical, yet decorative elements on the are sober, in simple traditional village style. The lower level of the main house was devoted in part to the storage of olive oil from the family press, and in part to processing agricultural goods. Ships would anchor at the beach of ‘Parisaina’ at the foot of the house, to load produce headed to Egypt. The upper level was residential, with a large north facing living room and three smaller south facing bedrooms. The picturesque terraced front yard was created by building the heavy stone retaining walls that can still be seen today.

Parisaina 1976 - photo courtesy of the Benaki museum archives

The house was used by the Pandos family up until world war II, when it was said to have been requisitioned by the German army as an observation post. The family did not return and it remained virtually abandoned until 2001 when it was bought by its current owners as a ruin.

Careful restoration works started by the new owners in 2005, exactly one hundred years after its construction. These were finally completed in the summer of 2018.

The basic principle which guided these extensive works was one of sustainability and environmental protection, both natural and human. This led to the adoption of natural materials (stone, lime mortars, etc.) and traditional working methods, and an avoidance of chemical additives. The result is an eco-friendly comfortable natural home that is enjoyed today for holidays and retreats in one of the most exceptional settings Greece has to offer.