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7. Lena's House

Lena's House is an annex of the Folklore Museum of Mykonos dedicated to everyday life in the nineteenth century. It is named after its last owner, Lena Scrivanou, and represents a typical middle-class Mykonian house.

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Mykonian weaving

Among the various furnishings and paraphernalia assembled at Lena's House, there is an impressive collection of traditional Mykonian dress, including a rendition of the elaborate attire of Mando Mavrogeni. These have been reconstructed faithfully from coloured lithographs of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Weaving was always popular in Mykonos, as attested by archaeological finds mostly consisting of loom weights. In the twentieth century, prior to the advent of the first mechanised loom, there were about 500 "fantadika" or weaving rooms in Chora, working tirelessly to create woven textiles tourists could take home as souvenirs. The geometric patterns and joyful colours, mostly on woollen fabrics, proved so influential in the 1950s and 1960s that even Christian Dior and Givenchy fell under their spell.

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The slaughtering of the pigs

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A story for a sweet

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