{"id":1356,"date":"2015-03-28T22:20:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T22:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atcorfu.com\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2024-02-09T12:23:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T12:23:17","slug":"benitses-photos-1950-celebrities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atcorfu.com\/benitses-photos-1950-celebrities\/","title":{"rendered":"Benitses of 1950, the Harbor, the Fishing Boats and the Celebrities"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span> Last updated on February 9th, 2024 at 12:23 pm <\/p> In the following photos we can see what Benitses like in 1950.<\/p>\n We can see the two characteristic creeks, the Port and Koutsomaroula bay, as they appear from the hill of Agios Stefanos<\/a>.<\/p>\n We also see the beach, the boats with the lamps, and generally how early tourism coexisted along with other economic activities since we see hotels and water sports and on the other side residents continuing to fish professionally.<\/p>\n In Benitses in the 50s, there were several fishing boats which we called gri gri. Every evening they left the harbor, towing behind them their large utility boat called “pisino” followed by the small boats with the lamps (pyrofania). Depending on the size of the shoals of fish, there were some nights when the nets were being cast and pulled in several times. The grey gri gri Agia Triada had a stocky shape and was bought by the residents with resources from the Marshall plan for reconstruction after World War 2. At this time, famous actors and several wealthy foreign visitors had started to visit Benitses, the island of Corfu after all was always attractive to the international elite, long before any other part of Greece.<\/p>\n And who has not been here then, read about on the page for tourism development<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are no pictures of most of them because only a few people had cameras at that time.Benitses of 1950<\/h2>\n
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Fishing with purse seine – gri gri<\/h2>\n
\nTwo of them were the larger, Saint Demetrios or “red” because of It’s red color and the Agia Triada (Holy Trinity) which also had the name “Binitsiotiko” or “grey” due to its grey color.<\/p>\n
\nFishing was as follows, the small boats were scattered in prominent locations to enable their lights to attract the fish when sufficient fish were in the area of light, the small boats called the mother ship, which arrived in the spot and surrounded the area with nets.<\/p>\n
\nIn these two fishing boats, most of the people worked who were involved in fishing and also other fishermen from neighboring villages.
\nOf course, there were also many other boats too that were operated by their owners.<\/p>\n
\nThese fishing ships finally stopped their operation just before 1980, by which time most of the inhabitants worked in the tourist industry.
\nIn the following photos, we see scenes of the departures of these ships, also there are scenes showing how other fishermen landed the catch on the shore.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>
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Celebrities of the 50s in Benitses<\/h2>\n
\nBut the wealthy Manessis family<\/a> had cameras and so thanks to them we have a few pictures of celebrities of the 50s, regular visitors to Benitses as the older residents remember.
\nSee below some photos, mainly with Vivien Leigh<\/a> and the English artist and set designer Roger Furse, pictures were taken in 1960.<\/p>\n