The Art of Loom Weaving Preserved in Geraki

By Angelos Angelidis
Eleftheros Typos
14 April 2026

“I have been weaving since the age of twenty, nearly half a century. By 2020, I was the last weaver in the village. The craft was on the brink of disappearing.”

In the heart of Laconia, where the slopes of Mount Parnon meet history, Geraki stands as a living beacon of culture.

Yet behind the village’s stone-built charm, a quieter and more troubling reality had been unfolding in recent years. The art of weaving, a vital means of survival and expression passed down through generations for millennia, had come perilously close to extinction. By 2020, the situation had reached a critical point. In a village once renowned for its weaving, only a single active weaver remained. Quite literally, the craft was saved at the eleventh hour.

The story of its revival began with the concern of the villagers themselves. Sixty-seven-year-old Chrysoula Stamatopoulou, a weaver and now an instructor at the Weaving Centre, told Eleftheros Typos: “I was born and raised in Geraki. I have been weaving since I was twenty, nearly half a century. By 2020, I was the last weaver in the village. The craft was at risk of vanishing.” This realisation sounded the alarm. The Cultural Association of Geronthres did not stand by. It approached the Laconia Regional Authority, seeking a structured, long-term solution rather than a simple grant. The response was both swift and meaningful. With funding from the Region of the Peloponnese, the support of the Municipality of Evrotas, which provided the premises, and in collaboration with the Parnon Development Organisation, the experimental “Weaving Instruction Unit” was established in 2021.

Its success has been remarkable. “To date, more than eighty people have been trained, including five men,” notes Mrs Stamatopoulou, highlighting that men now taking up the loom reflects a broader social shift and a renewed respect for craftsmanship, not merely as domestic work but as a viable profession. Geraki’s reputation has since spread beyond Laconia. Trainees from Portugal, France and England have travelled to the village to learn the craft of the upright loom. Particularly striking is the case of an Australian of Greek heritage who, after completing his training, returned home and now weaves and sells his own creations, carrying the Geraki tradition to the other side of the world.

What sets Geraki apart globally is its use of the upright, or vertical, loom. This is not simply a tool but one whose form has remained largely unchanged since antiquity. Depicted in Egyptian wall paintings over 3,500 years old and in Byzantine manuscripts such as the Book of Job, the upright loom has found its last stronghold in Geraki. Even the construction of new equipment for the Weaving Centre became an act of revival in itself. Local carpenters and blacksmiths were enlisted to build the looms and traditional combs, ensuring that the knowledge of making the instrument would not be lost alongside the weaving technique. On the upright loom, the weaver works seated, while the warp is set vertically around two horizontal beams.

Geraki’s kilims are handwoven rugs distinguished by their intricate floral and geometric patterns. Traditionally, the yarns, wool sourced from local flocks, were dyed using natural pigments from Mount Parnon, such as melegos for black and walnut husks for brown.

The Cultural Association of Geronthres and local bodies now aim to establish a Weaving Museum and to fully document and preserve this tradition. Since 2022, collaboration with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation centres at UCLA and Simon Fraser University has opened new avenues for research, ensuring that this ancient craft not only survives but continues to evolve.