Culture and history info

Lefkada is an island with a wide spiritual tradition. Its geographical position - like all the others islands of Ionian Sea - obtained a closer relationship with the West, in the years where all Continental Greece had been experiencing the spiritual Middle Age of Turkish Domination.

The temperamental Heptanisian culture and the unique feature of the island, full of “breath of the sea, breath of the pine trees” gave to Lefkada the opportunity to give birth and nurture some of the most sensitive poetic souls. In this island, were born or were springs, eminent artists and scientists with Pan-Hellenic recognition and international appreciation and publicity. Agriculture had been for centuries the most important occupation of Lefkada’s inhabitants and the greatest activity which ensured their survival. The most favorite and profitable one, was the cultivation of olive - mostly on the plains - and the viniculture - on the highlands of the island- an activity which had been adored from the ancient times. Many writers - like Plinios the senior (23-79 a.c) and the Athineos (160-250 a.c) the writer of “Deipnosophistae” - referred the famous wine of Lefkada. Except from agriculture, other profitable activities, are stock breeding, fishing, trade and practical crafts of everyday life.

The agriculture and stock breeding activities helped to arise and stabilized, by creating their own tradition, occupations which had been self evident in the small agricultural societies: The ploughman, the reaper, the thresher, the miller, the oil presser, the digger, the chimney man. The rest of the traditional occupations: the cobblers, the cooper, the blacksmith, the tailor, the merchant - had been completing and framing the leading occupations of the families.