Naxos Castle, archaeological museum complex, restoration works of the medieval buildings to accommodate the new museum set-up on Naxos.
Working in a small room on the third level, we remove a more recent wall. Behind it appears a niche with a shelf. Above, a written inscription in Latin can be seen on the whitewash: +IHS, lavamini, mundi estote. The first part was the emblem of the Jesuits. The rest was from the book of the prophet Isaiah: Isa. 1,16: wash yourself and be clean. The inscription also explained what the niche was for: it was to hold the jug of water and the washing basin in the cell of a Jesuit monk. Indeed, the complex being restored had hosted the Jesuit order in Naxos for a century and a half after 1632.
At the same time, and one level below, the Ephorate’s craftsmen were removing newer plaster from a vaulted space. Below appeared an Italian inscription in large letters: il coraggio è abitudine or courage is a habit. This is one of the fascist slogans of the Mussolini regime. But what was it doing inside a medieval building in the Cyclades? Well, in the early years of the occupation, the long-suffering building had been commandeered by the Italian occupation troops. They filled it all with Mussolini-slogans like the one above.
The work carried out there by the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades with European funds from the ESPA of the South Aegean Region within the framework of the ‘Museum Island of the Castle of Chora Naxos’ program has also brought to light very important evidence. This is to do both with the development of the ancient Naxian acropolis into a powerful Byzantine castle in the 7th century, as well as for its transformation, six centuries later, into the seat of the Venetian Duchy of the Aegean. The building is a complex palimpsest with successive phases and reconstructions from the early Middle Ages to the 20th century.
Among the ancient sculptures found embedded in the walls, as well as the unknown hidden spaces of the medieval buildings that are being revealed, finds are also coming to light that tell the stories of the people who inhabited it from antiquity to modern times. The new permanent exhibitions of the Museum of Cycladic Culture and the historical story of Naxos will be housed in the three restored buildings.
