In a marble workshop in Mets, an Athens neighborhood, tourists are trading sightseeing for chisels. For about a year, the Georgiou family, third-generation sculptors, has opened its workshop to visitors eager to try the fading craft of marble carving.
Word has spread through TikTok. Recently, participants from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Italy, Palestine, Belgium and Jordan gathered under brothers Alexandros, 32, and Thanasis, 30.
The 90-minute session traces sculpture from antiquity to modern Greece, moving from a paper sketch to a clay model, a plaster cast, and finally marble itself. “We want whoever attends our workshop to see how these marvelous sculptures found in museums are created,” Thanasis said.
Niki, 27, visiting from California, called it unmatched: “Making things with your hands, with such detail, is something unique.” She left with a carved olive branch cut from Pentelic marble – the same stone used for the Parthenon – a piece she could give to her children.
REIMAGINE TOURISM IN GREECE TOURISM ARTS & CRAFTS
