Private Museums exist and are maintained in Omodos, some of them being 100 year old houses, that until today are kept the same as when they were first built. These old houses themselves are of considerable interest from an architectural point of view, both externally and internally. The Private Museums are specimens of a traditional house in Omodos. They are made of stone and clay with huge, thick walls, wooden doors and tiled roofs, and flower-ridden gardens.
In the same areas that people sleep in, there were earthenware jars with wine and -many times -animals also lived there. Signs of harsh times of poverty and deprivation.
So, foreign and local tourists come up against the higher bed with the in-wrought “sklouveri” (silky mosquito net), the “amousia” (similar), the “pitsilia” (pleaded band around a bed), the wood-cut couches, the chairs made of straw fibre, the walls decorated with framed paintings made out of silkworm cocoons, family photographs, prehistoric objects, swords that have been in the family, etc. One also finds the stove and the cooking pots made of copper, the “tsestos” (shallow hamper made of wicker), the “tatsia” (very fine sieve), the “sini” (round, metal oven tray), the “zygi” (scales), the “chartzi” (copper cooking pot), the dipper, the iron ladle, the sieve, the “sisamiko” (fine sieve) and the “tamboutsia” (large, flat, leather pannier for collecting sifted wheat), the “koumni” (small, wide-mouthed pitcher) and the “kourelos” (wide-mouthed, amphora-like, earthenware pot), the frying pan and the “satzin” (iron pan with two handles), the launder and the kneading trough, the mortar and the scraper, the “tsouka” (kind of pot), and the iron-mill .
Moreover, in the house’s storage area, which -to begin with -is also a kind of “workroom” where the grapes are, many agricultural tools are kept and exhibited, most of them still being used today.
These tolls are the result of a long-standing practical need and the invention of the human mind. They are a specimen of our folkloric cultural heritage and the ingenuity of the region’s viticulturists.
The huge, earthenware jars with their covers, in which the grapes were ground and wine was made, have a special place. The “dhani” (earthen jar for racking off wine), in which they placed “zivania” (strong, transparent, alcoholic drink) or the grapes were stepped on and their juice was extracted. The grinder for the grinding of grapes. The mill for the crushing of the ground grapes. The “kouzes” (kind of pitcher), the “kolotzi” (tarred gourd) and the “koloka” (bottle-gourd), the “spilastiri” for the mixing of the grape husks, the “asiin” (goatskin) for carrying wine and vinegar. The baskets and the panniers for the gathering and carrying of the grapes.
Sometimes in the yard and other times in the house, there was the traditional caldron with which the distillation of “zivania” (raki). The tools, related to the planting and the cultivation of the grapevine, were placed in a salient spot. Such are: The plough with which they tilled the vines, the pruning hook for the pruning of the vine, the small hand-saw, the pickaxe and the “ksinari” (kind of pickaxe), the ladder for the planting of the vine, the sulpharation tin-can, the “stratouri” (pack-saddle for donkeys), the “katsounes” (plural, crooked sticks), the “fountes” (plural, thick rope for fastening hampers on animals), the “resieme” (halter), the “vourka” (shepherd’s leather bag), the “doukani” for the threshing of wheat, and others.
Editing of text: Panayiotis Socratous Secretary of ecclesiastical committee