Fourni – CHORA

Chora
The modern Chora of Fourni is pleasingly grouped in a theatre-shaped ring of hills, and occupies a small fertile plain watered by the confluence of several seasonal tor rents. It has two beautiful and memorable characteristics: the straight, marble-paved main street lined with mul berry trees which leads straight up from the port, and on which the evening volta takes place; and the charming main square to which it leads, shaded with planes and ringed round with kafeneia and several old, stone houses.
   One corner of the square is dominated by a massive (lid less) ancient carved sarcophagus of the Roman period (1st century ad), of local marble, which was found on the edge of the town in the area of the Roman cemetery. Its sides are decorated with a design found widely in Asia Mi nor and which is generally typical of Ionian Greece and of Greek Egypt: the rings and pendants, which normally have the form of carved garlands of leaves with hanging bunches of grapes, are here completely undefined, so also the rosettes in the centre of the swags. This is not because the piece is unfinished (the surface would be rough if this were the case), but because such a stylised and reduced form of the traditional iconographic elements was fashionable in certain periods and situations, not least because it was a considerably less expensive solution. On the sarcophagus’s north side the inscribed epitaph is visible of ‘Epameinon, son of Telon and Philte’, who died at the age of 25. The inside shows clearly the chisel and running-drill marks left from the hollowing out of the block, instructive of the methods used by the stone-cutters for such a process. Across the square, is the main church of the is land, dedicated to Aghios Nikolaos; like nearly all of the other churches and most of the town, it was built within the last 70 years. A few decaying stone houses of an earlier epoch, however, still stand at the foot of the hill behind the plateia.
   The chora of Fourni lies over the site of the ancient settlement, whose acropolis was above on the top of the sharp spur directly to the northeast. The points of great est historical interest are to be found on this ring of pro jecting summits above the town. They are best reached by taking the principal road (surfaced only for the first 2km) which leaves from the south, but circles round above the town before heading north. As the road at first climbs from the harbour to the south, it passes below the church and cemetery of Aghia Triada on the left. On the saddle above (1km) are four restored windmills, which mark the descent on the southern side into Kambi­ and its bay. Kambi­ is no more than a cluster of gardened houses, and a couple of seasonal tavernas beside an attractive and sheltered beach and harbour. At 1.7km is a junction: the road to the left heads north to Chrysomilia (15km), to the right it continues south to Aghios Ioannis Thermasti­s (6km).