“Kastromenes” The book
Kastromenes had nonetheless a rather difficult time living together. Hierarchy amongst them, their relationships, passions, habits and culture are recorded in detail in the three-volume book with the title “Kastromenes” by Antonis Syrianos(Only the first volume of the book has been released).
Apart from Antonis Syrianos being the founder of the museum, he is the most suitable narrator of their unique story, as he is the grandnephew of Anastasia, whose family owned the Castle, and lived with them during his childhood and adolescence.
His book is both a folkloric study and an ethοgraphy of an era. The independent (yet connected) narratives of Kastromenes are reflected with a rather humorous way and the particularly strong characteristic of the Tinian dialect.
The next two books are to be published soon.
CD “ From Tinos to Naples”
kastromenes had their own music, very similar to the Ionian music and the music of other Italian-dominated areas of that time. From the end of the 19th century following closely the Italian events, they added Neapolitan music to their repertoire accompanied by troubadours and mandolins.
The dances, the dirges, the melodies and their musical tradition in general were an important source of inspiration and impetus for Antonis Syrianos, who grew up with them. His musical beginnings with Kastromenes led him to study music at the Paris Conservatory and the Teatro alla Scala Milan, and to pursue a successful career as a tenor soloist, with numerous performances around the world.
In 2021 Mr. Antonis Syrianos recorded a CD titled “From Tinos to Naples” to honor Kastromenes. It is indeed the first time ever that the music Kastromenes sang and listened is recorded and saved.
More CDs will be released soon.
“Living closely with these women throughout my childhood and adolescence
as well my continuous relationship to the Castle even after my studies away from Tinos, plus their distinctness to the environment they lived in and my own belief that I had lived and kept witnessing something uniquely spectacular inspired me to immportalize their life and make them heroines in my three volume book Kastromenes.”
“In its short introduction this triptych is a hymn to the women of Tinos, (Androutses:manly women). Over the centuries they managed to cope with the almost insurmountable difficulties of a religiously divided island. It begins briefly with the foundation of Chora in 1715 and cheerfully focuses on the social life of Tinos as a whole from the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century and particularly on the two large neighbourhoods of Chora. The rich and proud Pano Vrysi and the poor and uneducated but proud Kato Vrysi.
A bunch of Pano Vrisi spinsters by choice, who brought together their dowries and lived together in the Castle for decades and with almost no help tried to keep the aristocratic tradition of their aristocratic neighborhood, creating their own laws that applied exclusively in their Castle. In a place where cleverness, cunning and simplicity had female names. Their own.”
“An every day comic – dramatic play, in which writers and actors acted their roles inspired by true stories. The stories they had lived or heard from their grandmothers or great-grandmothers. The ones they repeated in favor of their own amusement (with only few exceptions) as a kind of redemption from their own life. A life they most likely wanted to overcome or forget by making fun of it.
Even for older women this cohabitation never came to know loneliness or isolation since as age increased the “price” was equivalent to a truly expensive antique. Moreover there was a constant influx of insiders to the dogma and philosophy of these proud spinsters.”
“Being rather snobbish and proud, Kastromenes had their own music, completely unknown and unrecorded until the release of the cd “From Tinos to Naples”, which has obvious similarities to Ionian music and other Italian-dominated places of the time. With influences from Italy back to the end of the 19th century, they introduced into their repertoire the Neapolitan songs, which despite being mostly cheerful were sung and played with reverence imposed by their distant but unquestionable Venetian origins”.
“With the burning of Smyrna in 1922, when Asia Minor aristocrats flooded Ano Vrysi, Smyrnian music entered their repertoire and even Turkish music did, since many of their girlfriends despite being Orthodox they did not speak Greek. They accepted these music influences with difficulty and discomfort and confessed that they were not interwoven with their class.
On the contrary, they were passionate about the foreign music of the interwar period, which they played and sang with passion. Until the end of the 20th century they even included Theodorakis and Hadjidakis as the true continuators of a superior national tradition not lacking patriotic elements that caused great merriment. Avoiding of course guerrillas and risings among the lower classes.”
“The castle owned twelve mandolins and the troubadours were always present even until the recent years.
In light of their musical and vocal abilities, despite being inflexible, they even forgot their humble origins and welcomed them into their parlors. “Music, my dear, elevates the person who plays it,” they justified among themselves the humble footprints on their doorsteps.
With the words of foreign songs being usually misused, they compensated for the verbal mistakes with a performance and a sensuality that turned every song into a theatrical play. Songs that had been sang multiple times, sounded like they had never been sang before. What their voices evoked was shivers and that sweet delightful uncontrollable sensation. Even the women of Kato Vrisi despite being in war with them, for a moment forgave them only by hearing the echo of their voices”.
“I grew up with them. I sang with them, played the guitar, the mandolin and learned the words to every song they sang mostly in a variation of their own. I never had to imitate them as I was truly a part of them. I was imbued with their character, I had completely assimilated them. Once and for all.
It was in Italy, when for the first time I received the greatest compliment of my life on stage. I was hearing these words for the first time, and even from experienced aging lips that had sung all around the world: “Your voice is of the ones with tears in it.”
This was one of the treasures I inherited from Kastromenes. A little bit of the color of each one’s voice. I sang and somewhere deep in my soul they would generously accompany me. We were together. The crowd could not scare me. Every single note of my voice was one of them.”
“A period of ethography”. This could be the title someone could give to the revival of their way of life. Or maybe “A living folklore”. Or something else I haven’t yet come up with. Honestly i do not know.
That wasn’t my purpose and I don’t consider myself a writer either. Writing these books was only an honorable break to the years I spent with them, so that the generations to come would have the chance to experience it themselves.
The Castle of 400 sqm with all the furniture, favourite objects, clothes, ornaments, jewellery and personal belongings of Κastromenes will be open to public within 2024 after personal sacrifices and efforts. My only help was indeed my voice and what I earned from it.
The reason behind the first book and the cd, “From Tinos to Naples” (despite their success), as well as the publication of the next books and CDs not being widely advertised is obvious. They will be published by the Castle and will all belong to the Castle. This way any financial benefits from their sale will help its costly maintenance, for which never have I received any financial help whatsoever.”