Sámos: Karlóvassi and the West

Karlóvassi, Sámos’ second city and port, is pleasant enough, much sleepier and Greekier than Vathy or Pythagório, and neatly divided, in descending order of interest, into old, middle and new (Paléo, Meséo and Néo) Karlóvassi, punctuated with the pale blue domes of absurdly large 19th-century churches.

The city was an industrial tanning centre between 1880 and World War II, when it hosted more than 50 tanneries employing some 300 locals. They produced leather for shoes, a business supported by better-late-than-never Tanzimat economic reforms put in place in the 19th century by the Ottoman Empire. The local pine forests provided the bark for the tannin, which was in such demand that the authorities had to intervene to protect the local forests.

The industry was so successful it led to the construction of Karlóvassi’s port, complete with an equestrian tram built to load the leather onto ships. When Sámos became part of Greece, it was the country’s top leather producer. But in 1941, the Italian occupiers looted all the leather. Attempts were made to revive the tanneries after the war, only to fail due to debt and new chemical processes.