Arachova mountain village
— a stone village the snow remembers.
Not only on a wall.
Arachova mountain village, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“Arachova holds the south face of Mount Parnassos at about nine hundred and sixty metres, a stone village stacked above the road from Athens to Delphi. The houses step up the slope in slate-roofed terraces; the bell tower of Agios Georgios stands on the rock above the square. In winter the village fills with skiers from the Parnassos resort half an hour above; in summer it cools the road by ten degrees.
The place, in three passes.
Arachova sits at roughly 960 metres on the south-west slope of Mount Parnassos, in the Boeotia region of central Greece, about ten kilometres east of Delphi and a little under two hours by car from Athens. The village is built into the hillside in stone-and-slate terraces along a single main street that bends around the rock of Agios Georgios. It serves as the main base village for the Parnassos Ski Centre, the largest ski area in Greece, whose lifts begin at Kelaria above the village.
Arachova has been Greece's winter mountain village since the Parnassos Ski Centre opened above it in 1976. The season runs from December through early April depending on snowfall; the slopes peak at roughly 2,250 metres at Kelaria. The Panigyri of Agios Georgios on the weekend nearest 23 April is the village's other annual fixture, with three days of processions, dancing, and the long stair-climb to the bell tower on the rock above the square.
The village is known for two old crafts: a hand-loomed weaving tradition in deep reds and oranges, and the production of formaella, a hard sheep-milk cheese with EU Protected Designation of Origin status, unique to Arachova. Both are still sold from small shops on the main street. Local red wine from the surrounding Parnassos vineyards is poured by the carafe in the tavernas. The walk down to the Castalian Spring and the Delphi sanctuary takes about two hours along the old footpath.
