The Town Hall of Ermoupolis is the jewel of the city. Its urban style combines the atmosphere of classical Greece with the romance of the West. In 1886, Ernst Ziller, a Bavarian architect, assigned a neoclassical style. Faced with this noble architecture, Eleftherios Venizelos, "founder of modern Greece," exclaimed: "Ancient Greece was reborn here in Hermoupolis." To highlight the Town Hall, Miaouli Square is covered with marble slabs and lined with palm trees. Around, the opulent buildings now offer their pleasant arcades to Kafeneion. Around the edge of the square, a bandstand marble exhibits a beautiful bas-relief representation of Apollo and The Nine Muses. Under the trees, "periptero" (newsstands and cigarettes) are resisting. The inside of the hall is up to my expectations. Frescoes, trompe l'oeil marble staircase, cool courtyard, beautiful woodwork, and, here and there, old enamel signs indicating the different departments.
At the rear of the Town Hall, the Apollo Theater, nicknamed "La Piccola Scala", was designed in 1862 by the French architect Chabeau. Used as a movie theater during the World War II, it deteriorated during thedictatorship years and came into oblivion. The renovation began in 1980 and the theater reopened in July 2000. The velvet seats are back, the ceiling paintings have regained their luster. On the first floor, the lodges of three famous artists were restored, with incidental scenes.
The village is crowned by the Georgios (St. George) Church and the Monastery of Aghios Jesuits. Inside, the most interesting work is certainly Saint-Georges accompanied by Saint Anthousa, which is after killing the dragon, not on a horse in the tradition of the Greek Church of hagiography.After the Virgin of the Carmelites, the main street, with its slabs of marble, plunges meandering through the village of Ano Syros. Some vaulted ways allow stray (??? sont un refuge pour les mendiants et autres parasites ???) and end up in a courtyard covered with a wall of bougainvillea flowers.
The stairs lead to a Kafeníon, (j'ai mis la virgule là car je pense que tu veux dire que le café a maintenant été aménagé pour offrir cette belle vue à ses clients) now with a stunning view over the city of Syros. On one wall are hung two essential rembetiko instruments : bouzouki and Banglamas. Beside them, a photograph of Markos Vamvakaris watches with a wistful look. Born a few houses away in a Catholic family, hence his nickname Frangos, the Français, the voice of the master of Piraeus rembetiko still echoes through the streets of Syros.
The legend of "Frangosyriani", his greatest success, is transmitted from generation to generation. Here it is: twenty years after his departure, Markos went back singing in his native island. The room was packed. "When I sing and play the bouzouki, I always look at the ground. I deal with people, I cannot watch them. But that night, I turned my head and saw a beautiful girl! Her eyes were black, but that night, I could not turn my head again. Thinking about it, I took my pencil and wrote: There's a flame in my heart as if you have bewitched me, sweet girl of Syros. When I returned to Piraeus, I wrote "Frangosyriani" (Catholic women). I never knew her name and she never knew that the song was dedicated to her". The first 78rpm of (est-ce que c'est un disque 78 tours, ou un disque enregistré en 1978 ? J'ai mis comme si c'était un 78 tours) Markos Karadouzeni is often considered as the first bouzouki record in Greece.
The legend of "Frangosyriani", his greatest success, is transmitted from generation to generation. Here it is: twenty years after his departure, Markos went back singing in his native island. The room was packed. "When I sing and play the bouzouki, I always look at the ground. I deal with people, I cannot watch them. But that night, I turned my head and saw a beautiful girl! Her eyes were black, but that night, I could not turn my head again. Thinking about it, I took my pencil and wrote: There's a flame in my heart as if you have bewitched me, sweet girl of Syros. When I returned to Piraeus, I wrote "Frangosyriani" (Catholic women). I never knew her name and she never knew that the song was dedicated to her". The first 78rpm of (est-ce que c'est un disque 78 tours, ou un disque enregistré en 1978 ? J'ai mis comme si c'était un 78 tours) Markos Karadouzeni is often considered as the first bouzouki record in Greece.
