Guests are invited to see the olive oil storage tank below the reception area. The cylindrical tank and its dome were built by experienced stone masons in 1850. It is a unique, underground monument made of hewn marble blocks and has a 40m³ capacity.
This particular storage tank was constructed by master stone mason Constantinos Farmasonis, who worked in the region from early in the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th.
It is round and covered with a dome-shaped cap. It tapers down to the bottom where residual particles floating in the olive oil settle. It has a capacity of approximately 40 cubic metres, is 2.8m in diameter and 5.8m deep. Assuming that an average family consumes 8 five-gallon cans, or 140 litres, of olive oil per year, it would take the family 220 years to get through the amount of oil it holds.
The tank is made of local marble from a quarry just above Anogia village on Mount Taygetos. It has been estimated that approximately 600 blocks of hand-hewn marble have gone into the construction of this tank. The blocks are not uniform and measure 20 to 40cm long, 20 to 30cm high and 20 to 25cm wide. The whole is encircled by a 15cm thick concrete shell made of variable-sized gravel and mortar from the volcanic island of Thera, widely known as Santorini.
It is part of human nature to find ingenious solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems and this region is no exception. Whenever the yield of oil was so great that the available cisterns, jars and various other containers were unable to cope with the quantity, producers turned to the olive oil storage tank at the house of my grandfather, Vasilios S. Christopoulos, built by master mason K. Farmasonis. What follows is a copy of the construction contract.
Xirokambi, 20th May 1916
Mr Vasilios Christopoulos,
This letter is to inform you that following our verbal agreement I hereby commit myself to the construction of a marble olive oil storage tank with a capacity of ten thousand okas at your residence in accordance with the stipulations laid out below:
1. The cost of the olive oil tank is to be calculated per thousand units of capacity, i.e. one hundred and five (105) drachmas per thousand units.
2. I will make the necessary arrangements for the extraction and transport of the marble, digging the pit and whatever digging is required for the tank as a whole, which will be carried out by my labourers, and will also arrange for 10 masons to cement and seal the marble blocks in accordance with current practice. The rim of the tank will be of carved marble.
3. The lime, sand and any other materials used to construct the tank will be paid for by you. I will only be burdened with the cost of the marble blocks and the stone.
4. Work will commence six days from today and will be completed on the fifteenth of September of this year, when I will hand over possession to you.
5. Payment will be made according to the work completed. I have this day received an advance of fifty (50) drachmas.
In the event of failure on my part to hand over possession of the olive oil storage tank by the date stipulated, I hereby commit myself to pay a penalty of 500 hundred (500) drachmas in compensation.
I remain your humble servant
Constantinos N.A. Farmasonis
P.S.
The marble will be brought in from Anogia quarry. I will bear the cost of extracting and transporting the marble. If the quarry owner requires any further payment, that extra burden will fall to you.
Having studied point 2 closely with regard to the sealing of the tanks, I report:
Though I have been unable to ascertain the exact proportions, the mortar used to cement and seal the marble blocks was, according to information given by Mr. Panagiotis Stergianopoulos, who had it from his father George Stergianopoulos, made from olive oil, egg yolk and sulphur which were made into a pulp. Lamb’s wool was spun into thread, soaked in the pulp and then placed at the edge of the marble. This method effectively sealed the structure as no gaps were left between the marble blocks. This is how they prevented oil leaking from the tank.
Source: "The Faris" Magazine - article by Vasileios I. Christopoulos
