Today, Greece’s landscapes are universally known; the immaculate white houses with their blue roofs are even one of the main reasons tourists set out to explore this Mediterranean country. But have you ever wondered why these dwellings scattered across the Greek islands are blue and white?
According to the Greek City Times, the colors of these houses have long been associated with those of the Greek flag, but there are also other, much more practical reasons…
Cooling the Rooms
The first reason is heat. According to a website about Greece and Cyprus, the Cycladic islands, which regularly face waves of extreme heat, were once devoid of accessible wood, and the houses were traditionally built from dark stone. The dark hue of these stones easily absorbed sunlight—and therefore heat. To remedy the stifling and unlivable interiors, locals began to paint their houses white to reflect the sun’s rays and cool the rooms.
Nowadays, as we explained to GEO in 2022, Athens, the Greek capital, is renovating many of its neighborhoods with light-colored coatings (albedo 0.55) to reduce the increasingly scorching temperatures linked to climate change.
Cholera Epidemic
The white color of traditional Greek foundations is also associated with preventing the spread of cholera during the 19th century. This disease, a major scourge of the time, is a waterborne infection that spread rapidly in densely populated areas.
Thus, explains Real Greeks, to limit the risk of large-scale transmission, past governments encouraged residents to paint their houses white. In fact, the limewash used was made from limestone, whose composition had disinfectant properties.
Blue and White, “the Colors of Patriotism”
Finally, more recently, the military dictatorship established in Greece in 1967—following the coup led by Brigade General Stylianos Pattakos—played a major role in the famous colors of Greek cities.
In 1974, six years after the coup, the military dictatorship adopted a law requiring that island houses be painted white and blue to represent the patriotic colors of the country, explains the Greek media outlet In.
Today, although the law is no longer mandatory, these colors have become an important marker of “Greek aesthetics” and, at the same time, a major tourist attraction.
