La discipline du folklore en Grèce et l’étude de l’architecture populaire

Abstract

The study of folklore and popular architecture in Greece. For one surveying the history of architecture in Greece, Antiquity takes the first place, followed by Byzantion and modern Greece, with its neoclassical architecture. The Ottoman period seems to be forgotten. From the time Greece became independent in 1830, the architecture of this period was even totally rejected. This paper is about the way in which, from 1920, two Greek folklorists, Georges Megas and Angeliki Hadjimichali, dealt with the domestic architecture of the Ottoman period. It was thanks to the development of folklore that an interest in this architecture finally emerged ; on the one hand, Greek folklorists attempted to prove the Greek origin of popular architecture by underlining its antique ascendancy ; on the other hand, they did their best to cut out any foreign influences likely to hinder their demonstration.