Eggares Olive Press Museum
Greece
Making our way back south our final stop for the day is in yet another part of the island blessed with fertile soil, Eggares there we vitit the villages traditional 19th centry olive press and gain precious insight into practices and a way of life that now belongs to the past now long gone.
Contents
8 sections · tap a section for its opening lines1Eggares Olive Press Museum
Welcome to the Eggares Olive Press Museum, located in one of the most fertile valleys of Naxos. As our source material highlights, Naxos is the most self-sufficient of the Cyclades, largely due to its 'good supply of water in a…
Listen in the app2The Stone Mill: The Art of Crushing
We begin our exploration at the stone mill, the first stage in the production of olive oil. Here, you see three massive, circular millstones made of local Naxian basalt. …
Listen in the app3The Pressing Area: Extracting the Essence
Once the olives were ground into a paste, they were transferred to the pressing area. Here, you will see a series of 'mouskari'—woven mats made of goat hair or hemp. …
Listen in the app4Decanting and Separation: The Purity of Oil
The liquid collected from the press was not yet the pure olive oil we see in bottles. It was a mixture of 'vegetable water' and oil. …
Listen in the app5The Pithoi Room: Storage of Wealth
After separation, the oil was moved to the storage room, where it was kept in massive clay pithoi or stone-lined pits. As we saw in Apiranthos, these 'nice ancient jars' were the standard containers for agricultural wealth. …
Listen in the app6The Blacksmith and Tool Workshop
A working olive press required constant maintenance, and most large facilities like this one had their own blacksmith and tool workshop. Here, you can see the anvils, bellows, and hammers used to repair the iron screws of the…
Listen in the app7The Modern Tasting Gallery
We conclude our tour in the tasting gallery, where you can sample the modern products of the Eggares valley. After learning about the arduous process of production, this is the time to 'embrace' the final result. …
Listen in the app8Final Reflections
As we leave the Eggares Olive Press Museum and step back into the lush valley, take a moment to look at the ancient olive trees that surround the village. Some of these trees have been bearing fruit for hundreds of years,…
Listen in the app
What is Eggares Olive Press Museum?
Eggares Olive Press Museum is a place in Greece with 8 story sections on Tellby. You can read the opening of each section on this page; the sound plays in the app.
| Location | Greece |
|---|---|
| Type | Heritage |
| Story sections | 8 |
| Text language | English |
| Coordinates | 37.1176, 25.4359 |
| Last updated |