University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst University Libraries Publication Series University Libraries 2021 The Stone-Built Palaiomaniatika of the Mani Peninsula, Greece Rebecca M. Seifried University of Massachusetts Amherst,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/librarian_pubs Custom Recommended Citation Seifried, Rebecca M. 2021. “The Stone-Built Palaiomaniatika of the Mani Peninsula, Greece.” In Deserted Villages: Perspectives from the Eastern Mediterranean, edited by Rebecca M. Seifried and Deborah E. Brown Stewart, pp. 153-205. Grand Forks: University of North Dakota Digital Press. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Libraries at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Libraries Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Chapter Four The Stone-Built Palaiomaniatika of the Mani Peninsula, Greece Rebecca M. Seifried The Mani peninsula, the southernmost projection of the Peloponnese in Greece, is the location of over 170 settlements with preserved stone-built architecture from the premodern era (Figure 1). These remarkable places are known locally as palaiomaniatika (old Maniat settlements) or palaio- chores (old villages). The settlements are small, comprising between 10 and 50 houses, and they were built and occupied by local residents of the Mani peninsula. The vernacular architecture of the houses is relatively ho- mogenous, constituting the typical one- or two-story rectangular layout (i.e. the “longhouse”) that is common throughout rural landscapes in the Peloponnese (Sigalos 2004a, 2004b:66; Stedman 1996:185–186). Roughly half of the settlements are still inhabited today, with the same houses that were built centuries ago serving as the foundations for modern homes and newer buildings constructed in the spaces between to form the nucleated settlement layout that is typical of modern Greek villages.