Silversmith Craft

Silversmith craft in Ioannina has its roots in the depths of time, it has recorded an important growth from the times of Despot of Epirus onwards. The greatest flourishing was marked in the 18th and 19th century, when Ioannina was one of the most important intelectual, commercial and artistic centers in the Balkans.Drawing their inspiration from the works of the ancient Greek tradition and the unsurpassed Byzantine art, while expessing at the same time the values of Epirote sencitivity and aesthetics, they made their presence strongly felt in this important field of modern Greek silversmith activity.

The specificity of Ioannina art is mainly expressed by special manufacture techniques such as wrought ("sfyrilato"), chiseled ("fouskoto", "skalisto"), filigree ("syrmatero") and "savati", techniques which reached the peak of their expressive power in Ioannina.

The Ioannina jewels and utensils, avoiding the gaudy and showy forms of the East, as well as the excessively decorated, cold forms of the West, offer a warm human optical impression, rendered in a particular fine and elegant dimension.

The silversmith workshops presently operating at Ioannina continue the tradition, creating hand-made products of high artistic and aesthetic perfection, worth of their glorious past.