Students of
Nea Karya Primary School, as part of the program, visited the location of the
old village of Nea Karya (known as Karampei) in order to transfer and expand
into the field all the useful information and knowledge gained through their
investigation so far.
The students
wandered in the neighborhoods where people from Karya and Karampei used to live
and walked along the old riverbed of Nestos River, having as guides two local
residents of the village who were fortunate enough to live in both the old and
the new village, Mr. Adalakis Eleutherios and Mr. Poulouktsis Stelios. They
visited the little church of Zoodochou Pigi, which was later built on the
location of the church of the old village. While exploring the courtyard of
the church they found parts of the old church, the stairs and the mosaic on the
landing, which are preserved until today. The students tried and visualised the
Old Village square, and by crosschecking information gathered by interviews,
old photos and maps they found the location of the community centre, the stone
house of Kara Mpei (the area was named after him) where the first school of the
village was housed for a few years until the regular school building was constructed.
Students also tried and visualised the location of the legendary mulberry tree,
which offered its shadow to everyday people’s meetings. They traced the
location of not only the Christian cemeteries but also of the Turkish ones
(which existed before Greek people set up in that area) and the area that the
school was, but only its ruins have remained. Lastly their look wandered to the
boundaries of the village, making the necessary comparisons between the old and
the new village so as to identify similarities and differences as far as the
size of the area, the street layout and their morphology are concerned. We
warmly thank our two guides Mr. Lefteris and Mr. Stelios for their overall
contribution to our research, including the amount of materials they have spared
and the significant amount of personal time they have dedicated in our effort.
It was a valuable experience, as we
were given the opportunity to follow the footsteps of our grandparents, and
look from a different angle the place that we usually visit but ignore its
history.
For more
information related to the history of Nea Karya you could refer to the website
“Historical Sources” of the blog.