Public Washhouses

Samos’s washhouses are important sites of cultural heritage, bearing witness to the daily life of the island’s villages and settlements. These were enclosed or open‑air spaces with basins where women washed the family’s clothes, as many homes had no water supply. The washhouses were strategically located near springs or streams and also functioned as social gathering places—women exchanged news, children played and residents conversed. In some villages, such as Chora, Marathokampos and Mesogeios, there was more than one installation, depending on parish or neighborhood. Their use gradually declined from the 1950s–1960s with the introduction of running water in homes. Today, the washhouses in villages such as Kallithea, Pagondas, Drakaioi, Platanos, Lekka, Koumeika and Ydroussa are valuable testimonies to traditional life on Samos.