Division 2 Historical

Some references to olive groves in Chalkidiki date back to 1415: the olive grove of Andronicus, in the Agios Pavlos (St Paul’s) monastery of Kassandra, the scattered ancient olive trees in the monastery of Vatopedi in Souflari of Kalamaria (Nea Triylia), the same in the neighbouring Daoutlou (Eleochoria) and the olive grove of the monastery of Iviron on the island of Kafkania of Olympiada. In the rest of Chalkidiki there were existing domesticated olive trees, and their presence often gave rise to place names. It would seem that the fruit from these olive trees were mainly used for the preparation of edible olives.

In the mid-19th century, Chalcidiceans began to concern themselves more systematically with olive-growing, the grafting of wild olive trees and, on a smaller scale, the transplanting of domesticated trees. This trend must mainly have been due to the favourable tax conditions created by the ‘Regulation on the licensing of new olive groves’ promulgated in 1863. By 1887 Christakis Zografos had already established the huge olive grove of Portaria, with a surface area of some 500 ha and over 32 000 trees. At the same time, Hatsis Osman founded a large steam-powered oil mill in Yerakini of Polygyros, which sparked off the modernisation of similar mills in Chalkidiki.

Chalkidiki’s causal link with the olive tree and its fruit is also witnessed by the age-old cultivation and production of olive products in the region, as historically documented, and the preservation of numerous folk traditions to this day. In Chalkidiki, for at least the last two centuries, the olive has been an important part of the inhabitants’ economic life, social activity and cultural traditions.