Agricultural Buildings and Sheepfolds

On Agios Efstratios, life was organized around a dual pattern of habitation. Families lived in the central village, where they had their main home, but also maintained a second installation in the countryside, the so-called “kalývi,” which focused their farming and herding activity. The kalývia were simple one-room buildings with rectangular plans, small narrow openings and flat roofs. Their dimensions ranged from 3–4 meters in width and 6–8 meters in length, up to 3 meters in height. The family was housed there, the harvest stored, and dairy products prepared. Around them were pens, threshing floors and auxiliary structures. In the mountains one finds sheepfolds or “damia” of dry-stonework, often incorporated into natural rocks or caves. Although these installations were abandoned in the 1960s–70s, their remains still testify to the island’s agrarian tradition.