Threads
Industry and trade
Iron, gunpowder, ice and customs: the forgotten working village.
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1212–1388
The Franks build the first watermills
In 1212 the Franks took Argos and Nafplio. In the period that followed, according to the Ephorate of Antiquities, the first watermills were built at Lerna, driven by the water of the springs. These mills would eventually…
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1687–1714
The Venetians expand the mills
After the Peloponnese came under Venice in 1687, the Venetians greatly expanded the mills of Lerna. They built connected vaulted granaries, fitted new grinding machinery and surrounded the complex with a stone dam with…
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1688–1715
A monopoly on the ferry, coffee and eels
Under Venice, transport between Nafplio and the mills was a state concession. The leaseholder had the sole right to carry people and goods by sea between Nafplio and the mills of Kiveri, to bring grain to the mills and…
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1698
A water-driven gunpowder workshop
In 1698, according to the Ephorate of Antiquities, the Venetians added a gunpowder workshop to the mills, driven by the water of the springs. How long it worked is not known.
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1700
Grain by boat, flour back to Nafplio
In his introduction to the Venetian cadastre of Argos, the engineer Francesco Vandeyk describes a castle on a high hill near the sea, called Anasiri, or by many 'Old Argos' or 'Helen's castle'. Below it, he writes, water…
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3 October 1703
Two mills leased for ever to Giannis Glygorakis
Two of the state mills at Kiveri, in a building that housed two more, had been leased for four years to Kyriakos tou Giorgou from Monemvasia for 202 reals; his lease ran out on 21 October 1702. After a public auction…
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21 November 1703
Timber for the saltpetre works at Kiveri
On 21 November 1703 a Venetian record notes timber being taken to Kiveri 'for the saltpetre works', the raw material for gunpowder. It fits the water-driven gunpowder workshop that, according to the Ephorate of…
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1710
The mills grind too little for Nafplio
In 1710 the Venetian commander-in-chief Marco Loredan complained that the mills of Kiveri ground only 15 stara of grain a day, about 1,245 kilos. That was not enough for the ship's biscuit (paximadi) of the city and the…
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1806
A ship from Smyrna unloads iron at the wharf
Leake found the southern mills close to the shore and to 'a small wharf where vessels load or disembark their cargoes'. A ship from Smyrna lay at anchor, unloading iron, and a row of storehouses stretched from the mills…
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19 July 1809
Tithe wheat goes from Myloi to Tripolitsa
A tax account dated 7 July 1809 (old style) records 'the wheat that was taken from Myloi to Tripolitsa' in the name of Nikolos Meletis, at 30 para a measure. It was the tithe wheat of the district of Argos, from 52…
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18 February 1826
Barber Ali's watermill is sold
Under the law on the sale of former Ottoman property, decree no. 16,817 sold the watermill of "Barber Ali" by the Kroi spring, with about 40 stremmata of land, to six men from Nafplio for 1,441 thalers. In 1832 they…
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1843
A state salt depot at Myloi
Salt was a state monopoly, and Myloi had a state salt depot (alatapothiki) from at least 1843. Its keepers were civil servants, and appointments and dismissals appear in the newspapers until at least 1877.
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1857
Carts on the road from Myloi to Tripoli
By the mid-1850s the road from Tripoli to Myloi could be used by carts. A Tripoli newspaper reported in 1858 that about ten freight carts a day travelled it, carrying goods between the landing place at Myloi and Arcadia.
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March 1858
The village councillor welcomes King Otto and Queen Amalia
King Otto and Queen Amalia came by steamer from Nafplio to Myloi, where all the villagers met them with local music. The special councillor (ειδικός πάρεδρος) of Myloi, "Mr Loukas", had strewn the streets with myrtle and…
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1865
A miller from Kynouria leases the mill
In 1865 the heirs of the Nafplio buyers leased Barber Ali's mill to Georgios V. Vasilopoulos from Mesorrachi in Kynouria. His family would keep the mill for almost a century.
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16 December 1865
No customs house at Myloi
Goods landed at Myloi for Tripoli still had to be cleared at the customs house in Nafplio, 'there being no customs house at Myloi'. A Tripoli newspaper complained about the detour this caused for the trade of Arcadia.
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17 June 1868
The national gunpowder works explodes
The national gunpowder works at Myloi blew up together with the powder magazine next to it. Five people were killed, among them a sergeant and two powder makers, and eight to ten more were injured. Some 6,000 to 7,000…
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1873
Myloi gets a customs station
After years of requests, a law of 1873 set up 'a customs station at Myloi of Argos'. Goods for Arcadia no longer had to make the detour through Nafplio. In 1874 a newspaper noted that there were public offices at Myloi.
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29 March 1873
The arsenal's water-driven forge at Myloi
A newspaper listed 'the hammer forge at Myloi' among the branches of the army arsenal of Nafplio, together with works for saltpetre and percussion caps. The forge stood at the 'stomalimni', the outlet of the spring lake,…
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13 February 1874
The state leases the fishery up to the 'Mill of Barberaga'
A state tender for the fisheries of the Argolid described the fishery of the river of Argos and the Almyros as running from Litharakia to the Almyros 'at the place of the Mill of Barberaga'. Eels were caught in these…
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1875
Vasilopoulos buys Barber Ali's mill
In 1875 Georgios Vasilopoulos bought the mill he had been renting for about 7,000 drachmas, to be paid off over ten years.
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15 December 1876
A steam hammer replaces the water wheel
The arsenal decided that the forging done 'at the water wheel at Myloi' would be replaced by a steam hammer. It marked the beginning of the end for the water-driven state forge.
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26 July 1877
The gunpowder works of Myloi at full work
In the tense summer of the Russo-Turkish war, the press reported that the gunpowder works at Myloi was 'working actively'. Nine years after the explosion of 1868, powder was being made here again.
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October 1887
Smuggled silks found on the shore of Myloi
In the autumn of 1887 the justice of the peace and the gendarmerie of Argos heard that goods were being smuggled ashore at Myloi. They went to the beach and seized six large crates and a parcel of silk fabrics, neckties…
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19 September 1889
Myloi has a customs post
Under a new customs law, Nikolaos Theologidis was formally appointed head of the customs post at 'Myloi of Argos', a job he already held. Goods landed at Myloi had to pass through his hands.
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14 December 1889
A new head of customs: Nikitas Loudaros
Nikitas Loudaros was appointed head of the customs post of Myloi. He replaced Nikolaos Theologidis, who had held the post for more than two years and was promoted to deputy customs officer on Othonoi.
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22 September 1892
A change at the customs post
The official gazette recorded that Andreas Papandreou was appointed head of the customs post of Myloi in place of Georgios D. Mousmoulis, who was dismissed. Nikitas Loudaros, an earlier head of the post, was moved to…
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7 August 1897
Another new head for the customs post
I. P. Digenis, formerly head of the customs post of Kionion, was appointed head of the customs post of Myloi. The heads changed often: in 1894 his predecessor (the name is unclear in the scan) had been promoted…
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28 August 1900
Smuggled cigarette paper found in the station's goods shed
Police officers from Argos seized smuggled cigarette paper in the railway goods shed of the station 'Myloi of Argos'. Cigarette paper was a state monopoly product, and the railway was an easy way to move it.
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April 1907
First stone of the ice factory Amymone
In early April 1907 the first stone of the first ice factory of Myloi was laid behind Barber Ali's watermill. The founders were the cousins Ioannis Vasilopoulos, a distiller in Tripoli, and Konstantinos G. Vasilopoulos,…
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4 August 1907
The ice factory Amymone opens
The factory was inaugurated on a Sunday in July 1907 (old calendar) and made ice and lemonade from early August. Its second-hand machines came from the Athens ice factory Olympos; it produced 250–300 blocks a day, sold…
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5 June 1912
A court case against the mill family
On 23 May 1912 (old style) the court of first instance in Nafplio (judgment 539/1912) ordered the heirs of Georgios Vasilopoulos, who had died in 1907, to pay a debt of 2,483.75 drachmas to a creditor from Argos. Most of…
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9 July 1912
The Olympos ice company sues over the machines
On 26 June 1912 (old style) the Athens court dealt with a claim of the ice company Olympos against the brothers Konstantinos and Ioannis G. Vasilopoulos for a bill of exchange of 3,975 drachmas. It was almost certainly…
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1917
The ice factory Amymone stops
With several interruptions the Amymone worked for ten years, from 1907 to 1917. Then work stopped suddenly, because of the old machines, low demand or, most likely, money troubles; the workers were laid off.
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2 October 1928
A tobacco smuggler caught at Myloi
The commander of the police post of Myloi, Ch. Gkekopoulos, arrested a smuggler from Dalamanara who was carrying a sack of cut tobacco and cigarette paper.
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December 1930
The customs post is still open: a new chief in 1930
The Argos paper reported that 'a few days ago the new head of the customs post, Grigorios Dymoperis, took up his post in Myloi'. Customs officers had been stationed in Myloi for at least forty years.
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13 July 1941
Aerial photo: the northern water mill on the shore
North of the village the photographs of 13 July 1941 show a mill building of about 21 by 7 metres on the shore, fed by a walled, dead-straight mill race from the northern spring at the foot of Pontinos, with an outlet…
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7 October 1950
First stone of the ice factory «Η Λέρνη»
Early in 1950 Anastasios Vasileiou bought the ruins of the old state warehouses on the beach of Myloi and levelled the ground. On 7 October 1950, after a blessing, he laid the first stone of the ice and cold-storage…
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December 1955
A model cheese dairy in Myloi
The Argos paper Aspis praises "the energetic businessman in Myloi, Mr Chr. Koutouzos", who has founded a model cheese dairy, "an ornament of Myloi" and the only cheese-making centre of its kind.
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1957
Barber Ali's mill is still at work
In 1957 the local historian A. P. Tsakopoulos wrote that of the Turkish watermills only the one of "Barber Ali" by the Kroi spring, north of Myloi, survived and was still working. It still carried the name of its Ottoman…
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13 October 1957 – 10 November 1957
A newspaper series on the first ice factory
Between 13 October and 10 November 1957 the Argos weekly Άσπις του Άργους printed four instalments of A. P. Tsakopoulos's "Historical notes: the first ice factory of Myloi–Lerna". Written partly from memory, it is the…
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12 February 1958 – 22 June 1958
The ice factory «Η Λέρνη» runs into debt
On 12 February 1958 the "cold industry of Myloi «Η Λέρνη»" announced that it would start paying its creditors in June, and in May Vasileiou called thirteen creditors to a meeting at the factory on 22 June 1958. Work…
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1960
The first pumping station of Lerna is built
In 1960 the "Α' Αντλιοστάσιο Λέρνης" was built beside the main spring, on the Argos–Tripoli road. Its four pumps lift 5,000 m³ an hour, about as much as the spring gives, to irrigate 11,500 stremmata in Myloi, Skafidaki,…
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1966
A "factory" on the British chart
The British Admiralty chart 1518 of 1966 marks a building labelled "Facty" just north-west of the root of the Myloi pier. It is probably the building of the ice factory «Η Λέρνη» on the beach.
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24 October 2018
Ice cream made in Myloi
A century after the first ice factory, the ice-cream maker FOODPROM (Provio), run by the brothers Athanasios and Christos Mitsakos, has a modern production unit at Kamini near Kalamaki, in the Myloi district. In 2018–19…