This photo was taken last Tuesday when we visited Pyrgi. It is a fantastic place, and most of the houses are decorated like this. With the narrow streets it is difficult to get proper photos of the whole facades, but I will post a few in the days to come. The way they do this is by first getting the right color of concrete. Then they paint the whole thing over with white paint, and then scrape it off where they want the concrete to show through. This is how the patterns are made. Sounds pretty time consuming.

The entire village of Pyrgi - 25 Km south of the town of Chios - is one of the areas which still stands as it was built. The narrow roads, the innumerable churches, and amongst them the 13th century Byzantine church of St. Apostles in combination with the unique black and white geometrical decor of the outer walls of the houses. -The "xysta" -are the things which enchant the visitor.
It has been designated a listed monument. It keeps its houses tied tightly together in what seems like a closed and compact form. The streets are cobbled and narrow. This type of fortress, a four-cornered structure, was built for protection against the frequent attacks by pirates and Turks, as well as for better cultivation of the mastic bush. It lies in small, treeless valleys far from the sea. The gray houses had doors and windows that faced only the interior of the wall, that is, inside the village. The outer walls contained adjoining parapets with small towers at the corners and only one gate. The inhabitants could enter and leave the village only through a door which can be found today at the location Kato Porta.