Sífnos

Sífnos in recent years has become the most popular island in the western Cyclades, with good reason – it is an island of peaceful serendipity, with gentle green hills, vineyards, watermelon patches and olives, charming villages and long sandy beaches, beloved by its 2,600 inhabitants who keep it spick and span. They produce superb olive oil, and speak with a sweet singsong lilt.

Sífnos, endowed with just the right clay for making earthenware pots used for slow cooking, is famous for its pottery; archaeological finds prove locals have been at it since the Early Cycladic period (c. 3200–2300 BC).

In the early 19th century there were so many potters that they emigrated to other corners of Greece; someone has discovered that every Greek potter has a Sifniot in his or her family tree. Just after the war, there were still some 90 workshops in the island, employing 600 potters, and after nearly dying a death the old tradition is undergoing something of a revival; today there are 19 workshops on Sífnos, making both traditional and artistic ceramics. In January 2022, UNESCO added the ceramics of Sífnos to Greece’s National Index of Intangible Cultural Heritage.