We're here at yGioras wooden bakery in mykonos town and i'm with a local guide Marilena who's
going to tell us a little bit about the history and what makes this bakery so unique and special
here Marilena calimera welcome how are welcome to the Gioras bakery really legendary and historical
place uh on mykonos island and Mykonos town uh fascinating because you can really see
how a place looked like centuries ago the building itself uh goes back to the 1500s
amazing so they've been baking bread in this specific place for over 600 years
the Gioras family yours is the local let's say nickname of the gentleman mr george and he has
been running his family has been running this business the past 200 years so pretty much a
living legend actually great and there's a whole history we're going to get into but to be clear
it was only up until five years ago that they were actually burning wood and baking bread
here in these ovens right this is true um they have adapted a little bit to modern times as
Chloe and Gioras support local products they have lots of pastry and other pies that are promoting
locally grown ingredients or dairy products that come from the island right so just to put that
in context today there's a thriving cafe but it's more pastries and savory foods and coffee exactly
but really let's say organic and gluten-free also and it's a very romantic relaxed laid-back
place to enjoy your morning coffee have something sweet or something savory and just something that
transfers you to a different time right so tell me a little bit about the history here there's a long
sort of it was a secretive place originally right it was a place where they were not able to break
big bread out in the open um yes actually because uh mykonos like lots of the islands in the past
were plundered by pirates and raiders basically lots of the construction of the buildings is done
that way so that they protect themselves from all these enemies and we can see that this is going
um coming in the steps go down so that was somehow carved in the hill originally
we can see the very strong thick walls so this is always a place that also needed to be protected
let's say so from from attacks right can you tell me a little bit about the technique because not
only the protection from the pirates but also the creating bread that would last on ships that
were off in the sea right yes actually this is related to the windmills tradition of the island
mykonos known as the windy island had lots of windmills so with the circles of flower
we had on the island we slowly after the 1600s have also lots more bakeries because flower is
turned not only into bread but also into that specific rust that is baked three four times
until totally dehydrated and this can last up to a year actually so it is the perfect supply for the
merchant sailboats navigating for longer periods of time this is not going bad they all they need
is to dip it in the city then it becomes salty as well and soft bread they have to eat on board
amazing plastic mykonos is in the center of the aegean sea so just strategically very important
for the sailboats to get their supplies renew their supplies here stop here before they continue
their trip towards um istanbul of today or syria or vice versa towards uh europe wow and so this
right behind you this is the original oven that was used right yes pretty amazing the shovels
all these iron casts so um i've seen this place operating it is just uh something very very
touching nate can you take me around a little bit yeah sure great so what do we have here
um apart from the beautiful little area uh first of all you can see how big the oven is and this
place never cooled down uh never really cooled down when it was operating so let's say there
was a sunday that they were not baking you could touch that and it was still warm very very amazing
then of course most areas of the bakery now are covered with those little beautiful tables you
can enjoy your breakfast and coffee here but taking a moment and looking around you see the
traditional way of constructing those buildings in the previous centuries you have the arches that
supported the ceilings you have the traditional ceiling with the wooden beams the reeds in between
seaweed and a mixture of plaster on top for insulation that was the
traditional way of making the roofs and those amazing thick walls with a many layers of the
plaster and the lime wash over the centuries that creates this rough surface it's something that
you know uh it's just connecting with the past and is still part of modern history and were they also
trying to sort of hide the smoke and conceal what was happening in here back in the day
i'm not really sure about that uh and how they would achieve that but um
for sure for somewhere the smoke had to to exit the building yes uh so great yeah
let's see a little bit further of course
back here we see the traditional oven as we see also in the houses of mykonos previous centuries
because every house and every kitchen they had on such a little oven this is where they're
down later on was uh fit here now we have the electrical ovens where all these little beautiful
things they're baking and then when we go to the main hall to the other side you will be able to
see all these um beautiful sweet and savory great and right here this is gioras and chloe who are
the owners of the bakery the living legend gioras whose family's been the baker's here for 200 years
how are you doing great beautiful bakery hello chloe how are you i'm great thank you
great can you tell me a little bit about what you have going on here we know that you've
evolved or you've moved no longer uh burning wood to bake bread here but you still have
these big delicacies and all kinds of tell me a little bit uh we start with a late breakfast
toys which are the cheese pies spinach pies everything like creamy everything like uh nutty
so coffee of course food good coffee and lots of gluten-free goodies as
well of course yes i have to go and just do that great i'll come back to you all right
so lots of amazing baked goods here and other savory treats homemade pies croissants
homemade lemonade baklava sesame treats this is the gluten-free case right here
all kinds of peanut and honey and other nut bars and just yummy goodness
great so Marilena were there any other parts of the bakery or the history that you want to
make sure we didn't miss here all you have to do is to come here and experience that
place this is all i have to say yeah it's a great spot in the morning time
or when it's extremely hot outside it's nice and shady and cool and quiet here
and it's a beautiful spot Marilena thank you so much for joining us so at santorini dave we
are attempting to not only review hotels and restaurants but also turn people on
to all kinds of great stories wait chloe you were telling me about your relationships with
the farmers and sort of the products that you're using yes we try to support the local community
all the products we can find on the island we just use them i would happily use them
yogurt cheese spinach vegetables from very very small tiny farms even
those who are very difficult to get access to water supply they try to
to to make the most out of any kind of water on the island we got the rain water uh we they try to
use wheels wells yes okay you just cut whatever you like great okay amazing thank you so much
for sharing it with us nice to be here for coming in great it's been a pleasure
okay so again not just hotel reviews and restaurant reviews but also trying
to help our readers and our audience find all kinds of great stuff
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