“How things change… I remember as a young man when I first moved to Athens, I felt that the people from the capital looked down on me. Now when I talk to Athenians about Kalamata, I feel that they are impressed. It embodies development and optimism, the alternative proposal of the good life in Greece, the sea, the mountains, the strong economy, the cultural life,” says Sotiris Theodoropoulos, who returned in 2011 with a desire to reconnect with his roots.
This led to the creation of the tourism initiative “Let’s go for a walk. Experience our city like a tourist,” which began as a hobby in 2013. Several years later, it gained professional momentum with guided tours across the entire prefecture of Messinia. We followed Theodoropoulos and enjoyed the “small lessons about the country” while walking in the neighborhood around the castle and in the famous farmers’ market, in one of the liveliest areas of Kalamata. Theodoropoulos stopped in front of old buildings, recounting charming incidents involving the architecture, the gastronomy, the human mosaic of a town that seems to be enjoying greater economic development than the rest of Greece.
‘Kalamata is like an island in terms of proximity to the sea, but without the difficulty of access. At the same time, it has a rapidly developing business ecosystem with new ideas, actions, it has a primary sector, it is the perfect city for a family in terms of safety’
“The city has no awareness of its history; only some scholars and educated individuals [know it]. Since the 1986 earthquake, we entered a continuous path of development that has not stopped. In fact, we did not fully feel [Greece’s] economic crisis here. We had olive oil, other products and tourism. This makes us look neither behind nor at what is right next to us. The problem, now that we are living in a period of prosperity, is the innate competitiveness of the people of Kalamata and the general distrust of all the residents in the ‘old lands’ [the regions incorporated in the first Greek state – the Peloponnese, Central Greece and the Cyclades],” he explains.
“This does not allow for synergies to be created easily, for there to be a common vision. Everyone looks out for themselves. Compare this with northern Greece and you will see that there, due to the intense influence of the refugees from Asia Minor, there is more team spirit, greater solidarity.”
Is that really so? The answer was given to us by Kostas Vasiliadis, who owns one of the most famous tavernas in the town, and is a descendant of refugees from Asia Minor who put down roots in Messinia. “I am a native of Kalamata, but an Asia Minor Greek at heart, originally from Ayvalik and Canakkale. I grew up in a refugee neighborhood, with a lot of love and a lot of truth. As a child, when I got a craving, I would go into whichever house I found first and they would feed me. That was how our neighborhood was, we loved everyone. If you have such an upbringing, you can’t fool the customer with bad food,” Vasiliadis says.
“One problem in the European South is that people prefer to be cunning than to be smart. If the opposite were the case, we could achieve miracles. Look how smart [1979-1990 Kalamata mayor Stavros] Benos thought after the [deadly September 1986] earthquake, which laid the foundations for Kalamata to become the city it is today. Stavros was 200 years ahead of his time. Then [former conservative prime minister Antonis] Samaras came along, who also helped. Local politicians need to support the area. The new highway that connected us to Athens was a big deal. Then came tourism and [luxury resort] Costa Navarino became a reality. [It is] a huge asset. Captain Vassilis [Constantakopoulos, prominent shipowner and founder of TEMES SA, developers of Costa Navarino] was generous, not greedy, he helped develop the entire region. May he rest in peace,” he adds.
Vasiliadis notes that being picky about flavors is a quality of all Asia Minor refugees.
“But I wouldn’t have succeeded without my wife, who grew up in a Messinian village and cooked for her farmer parents from the age of 12,” he says, adding that he became a restaurateur out of necessity. He worked as a technician and electrician at a Levi’s factory in Kalamata, and when it closed along with other similar businesses, many locals were left high and dry.
Water scarcity
Remarkably, this economic blow with thousands of unemployed, as well as the 1986 earthquake, left no “marks” in the city. On the other hand, tourism development and changes in lifestyle have begun to affect the primary sector that forms the identity of Messinia.
“Add climate change to the mix, which has brought about a huge water shortage,” says Michalis Antonopoulos, president of an olive oil cooperative located near his estate. We met him in his olive grove. “Who would have thought that we would consider rain as a gift? The prolonged drought has changed the color of the olives,” he tells Kathimerini. A geotechnical engineer and environmental consultant by profession, he has been involved in local government since 1996.
“There is no Messinian family that is not somehow involved in olive oil production,” he says, adding that he is concerned about the increased use of pesticides. “When the price rally began, it was accompanied by reckless use [of pesticides] to ensure large quantities. And one realizes this from the fact that the producer himself does not give his family the olive oil that he himself sells for mass consumption. He has a separate olive grove that he does not spray,” he says.
“Messinia and Kalamata are seeing tremendous growth. They will surpass the rest of the Peloponnese. Permanent residents, foreigners who come to live here and those who visit us for holidays see that there is a sense of euphoria and quality of life. This economic dynamism is based mainly on tourism and not so much on olive oil, in the primary sector, as in the past.”
Antonopoulos returned to live in Kalamata in his 30s and now, at 60, he feels he made the right decision. “Here you have clean air, mountains, sea, fertile land, contact with nature and olive trees. So, after my studies in Athens and Philadelphia in the US, when I returned to my hometown, I got involved in public affairs because I felt that I had to actively give back through my field of knowledge: to take care of the environment, [to promote] sustainability, make interventions for proper urban development, raise awareness about how a crop becomes sustainable. It is not enough for a region to be blessed by nature – the residents must take care of it, and look to the future. For the last two years, our region has been experiencing continuous heatwaves. Also, our city, due to the rivers, has an increased risk of flooding. We must act now, not tomorrow,” he warns.
The Kalamata earthquake was a key event for the changes that later brought development at the level of urban planning and beyond. “The issue is that the good infrastructure that was built then is not sufficient today. The city has grown a lot, tourism adds more visitors every summer,” he says.
Toll on fishing
The rise in temperature is not only being felt on the land but also in the sea, Panagiotis Kallianis, one of the few remaining traditional fishermen in Kalamata, tells us. Kallianis and his wife Ourania sell their catch every morning from their fishing boat. “I have been at sea for 43 years. We used to know what to expect, that this month you would catch such-and-such fish. That is gone, everything has been messed up due to climate change. Today we don’t even have the fish population that once existed. This year the water temperature reached 30 degrees, so we only caught fish at great depths. When I first started in the profession, there were 40 boats, now there are barely 10. Things started to break down when my father’s generation left and the next one didn’t go into the job, which is hard and difficult.”
Tasoula Fifa, who has her own fish shop in Kalamata’s covered market, agrees. We found her at rush hour. “The catch has diminished and new species have arrived via the Suez Canal. The people of Kalamata are gourmets and a bit spoiled. They have it all, the sun, the sea, the good life, their olive oil. The older generations were trained to work harder. Easy things and little effort are more palatable than difficult things and much effort, and this shows in everything. The younger generation have everything at their feet,” she says.
But could this also be the secret that keeps them from leaving town? It is impressive how many remarkable people in their 30s and 40s one finds in Kalamata, who lived abroad but decided to return and managed to find a good job.
One of them is Dimitris Voulgaris, who studied at the university on the island of Lesvos and then in the United Kingdom. “I could have stayed in London and worked there. I would have had a moderate salary, I would have shared a flat, I would have gone to the office from 10 to 6. What mainly affected me was that I would be living somewhere with transient people, where it is difficult to make friends and form new relationships. On the contrary, the opportunity I gave to the city where I was born worked out well for me. I wake up in the morning and say good morning in my language, I go to the beach, I go for a run, I have my family, I have friends, I invest emotionally in people. Many of my peers are in Athens or abroad and I said to myself, ‘If we all leave, what will become of this city, this country?’”
Voulgaris works at the nonprofit organization Mataroa, which focuses on developing actions for inclusion, gender inequalities and strengthening local entrepreneurship. It was founded in 2015 in Kalamata by Ippokratis Papadimitrakos, an engineer by profession, and Antonis Papadopoulos, a business consultant, with the central vision of empowering the local youth. The name chosen by the two 30-year-olds is not accidental. In December 1945, RMS Mataroa brought from Greece to southern Italy more than 100 Greek artists and intellectuals aiming to reach Paris in order to escape the horrors of the imminent Greek Civil War. Just as the ship transported the elite of Greece’s intellectual scene to safe ground after the Second World War, so the nonprofit founders wanted to help young Greeks who were struggling with the country’s economic crisis.
Their first project, conducted with the help of the US Embassy, was Code Girls, where 10- to 16-year-old students learned to write computer code. It was followed by Coding Bees, which had classes for adult women. “A new pillar is the Unistart hub for the development of entrepreneurship at the University of the Peloponnese and the Regional Authority of the Peloponnese, where we are the strategic partners for Kalamata, and the Tech4Disabilities action,” Voulgaris tells Kathimerini.
“Disabled people and caregivers are familiarized with the 3D printer process through seminars to make objects that facilitate everyday life – e.g. a special handle for a disabled person to hold a glass.” Voulgaris travels from Kalamata to other Greek cities to organize these actions.
The foundation
Equally happy to live in the city where he was born is Dionysis Papadatos, who followed a similar path to that of Voulgaris. His return to Kalamata coincided with the creation of the Captain Vassilis & Carmen Constantakopoulos Foundation, where he has been working since 2011 and watched it take its first steps.
“The foundation’s focus has always been Messinia and its main purpose was rural development. Later, the pillars of society, the environment and culture were added,” he says. “One of our first concerns was research and the promotion of Messinian products. Our attitude was to figure out the needs, to cultivate networks and, above all, to educate people. As the foundation matured, we also increased our synergies with other organizations. I think what we have achieved is that we have dispelled mistrust, because our strategic choice was to set up programs from the ground up, to listen, to co-shape and not to dictate. Finally, with patience and persistence, the people we address, such as farmers, trust us,” he adds shortly before going for a swim in the winter sea.
Volunteers and digital nomads
Three of the most interesting young people Kathimerini met in Kalamata were blind runners Georgia Papadea and Yiannis Charalambopoulos, and their volunteer running guide Olga Reitzopoulou. “Our [sport] association [for people with disabilities], DIAFOROZO, was founded in 2015 by Giorgos Lazaridis, an athlete with a disability and current deputy mayor. He knew firsthand how important it is for people on the disability spectrum to get out of their homes. The club’s training sessions began timidly in 2016 in track and field, sailing, wheelchair tennis, wheelchair table tennis and archery. We are 15 athletes. Our accompanying coaches, who are all volunteers and offer their time freely, play a significant role,” say Charalambopoulos and Papadea, who are a couple in both life and sports.
“We, the running guides, are athletes who were matched by coaches, such as Maria Chronopoulou, with those who have disabilities,” says Reitzopoulou. “Since 2017, I have been running with Georgia and Yiannis and going to races. My fellow townspeople see us on the street and congratulate me. I reply that I simply lend my sight to these athletes. Those athletes should be congratulated for having the mental strength to run, they go to local races but also to national ones, they give lectures at schools. Kalamata is a city of sports, with lots of roads, and a large community of volunteers.”
“When I run with Olga, she is my eyes, she guides me, I feel complete trust,” says Papadea. “With training you achieve goals, but you also win over the people who stand next to you. We are no longer just friends, we are family. Because we also run outside the stadium, Olga describes the landscape to me, tells me about the sunset and thus makes me not think about how many kilometers we still have to run.” Charalambopoulos says Kalamata’s city center is good for running, but elsewhere there are problems. “Sometimes, of course, it is not the infrastructure that is lacking. It is the mentality of the people that upsets us: sidewalks occupied by tables, roller skates that we cannot hear. Just like electric cars that do not make noise, they are dangerous for those of us who can’t see.”
Together, the couple go to schools to raise awareness among the younger generation. “I believe that as long as we become visible and don’t stay home, by being socially active, the stigma gradually recedes and awareness increases. For example, kids tell us: ‘I’ll tell my mom not to park on the ramps.’ They are the best receivers,” says Papadea, who was left blind by a medical error as a newborn in the incubator.
Charalambopoulos could see, but a degenerative disease affected his vision. “We met on the phone and after two years we met in person,” Papadea says. “I moved from Athens to Kalamata for his sake. I couldn’t live in Athens another moment. Here you don’t have to take a bus to go somewhere, you can walk more easily. During the Covid-19 lockdown we went for walks. Recently, on a visit to Athens, I noticed in the metro carriage that the crowd, with its volume, would not let a blind person get off the train. We have a long way to go.”
Leaving Kalamata’s stadium behind us, we head to the city center, where a multipurpose business and cultural space, Phaos, is located. There we met a British couple who have just settled in Kalamata and are working remotely: journalist Olivia Acland and engineer Tom Mosquera. Cosmopolitan and restless, they had been living outside the UK for years, before Brexit. “My husband bought a house in Kato Verga that overlooks the bay and is next to the city. We had visited the area and Mani three years ago and we loved it. I work as a correspondent for various media, while he is a project manager. Because of our work, we have lived in various places, from Africa and Mauritania to Portugal,” Acland says. “I was working in Lebanon recently, but after the events they could not guarantee our safety and so I had to leave. We decided to make Kalamata our base,” Mosquera adds.
Originally from Liverpool and Bath, the two Britons chose the city over a village in Mani because it has life all year round, it is near the sea and the mountains, it has an airport, a hospital and a nice climate. “The city also seems to be doing well economically, it has tourism, but it is not drowning in foreign visitors. At least not yet.” How do they feel? “I like the coasts of the European Mediterranean from Lisbon to Turkey,” Acland says. “Darling, Lisbon is not the Mediterranean,” Mosquera corrects her. “I’m just trying to describe the common way of life,” she replies. The two met at a reception at the British embassy when she was the Economist’s correspondent in Congo.
The creator of the multipurpose space where the two Britons work is Nelli Kouvelaki. “I studied business administration and worked for many years in banking. After 20 years in the field, I made a change. With my knowledge of business, I identified a gap in the co-working space, a space for entrepreneurship and culture, for digital nomads, for events. Now we have a second space. Kalamata is incredibly popular with foreigners. It is like an island in terms of proximity to the sea, but without the difficulty of access. At the same time, it has a rapidly developing business ecosystem with new ideas, actions, it has a primary sector, it is the perfect city for a family in terms of safety. We have many new residents in the area: Israelis, Europeans, Russians. Sometimes it feels like a little Babel in here!”
‘Marseille of the Morea’
“Let me tell you how I fell in love with Kalamata. It was in 1965 that my husband first brought me here,” says Victoria Karelia, president of the namesake tobacco company and the George & Victoria Karelia Foundation, as well as honorary president of the Lyceum Club of Greek Women (Lykeion ton Ellinidon) and the Association of Friends of Music of Kalamata.
“It was spring and the orange trees were blooming. I opened the window and all this fragrance came in! Then there is the openness of the sea, the well-to-do, happy people who traded abroad. It was the Marseille of the Morea [the name of the Peloponnese peninsula during the Middle Ages and the early modern period].”
The great lady of Kalamata endowed the city with the Victoria G. Karelias Collection, one of the most beautiful museums in the country dedicated to Greek traditional costume. “I never imagined the number of visitors. I was at the Kalamata branch of the Lyceum Club of Greek Women for decades. My husband used to tell me, ‘Find a hobby so you don’t get bored here.’ Then I started collecting costumes and learning everything about them. At some point I realized that I had grown too old and the collection’s acquisitions were staying in their boxes. I decided that they should not stay with me and should remain in public view, so that they can tell their story to the new generation,” Karelia tells Kathimerini. “It is a city worth living in!”
