Do you know what a tannery is?
Tanning is the process of treating skins and hides of animals to produce leather. A tannery is the place where the skins are processed.
Tanning hide into leather involves a process which permanently alters the protein structure of skin, making it more durable and less susceptible to decomposition, and also possibly coloring it.
Before tanning, the skins are dehaired, degreased, desalted and soaked in water over a period of six hours to two days. Historically this process was considered a noxious or "odoriferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town.
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Exactly there, at the outskirts of Chania (a town at the west side of Crete) I have found this complex of buildings that used to host up to 80 small tanneries! The name of this neighborhood is "Tabakaria" and I visited it at the peak of its decaying glory!
They are all stone built at the early 19th century and they were fully operational until World War II. When I took those pictures there were a couple tanneries still in business but the the general feeling was abandonment.
I haven't been there lately but I know that things are changing rapidly. When you have beautiful unused buildings, practically on the sea, next to one of the most touristic Greek towns, it doesn't take long before the long hands of touristic development grabs it all :)
So if you stop by, you'll see a different scenery but I wanted to share those pictures as a document of the past!
All the pictures and the words are mine.
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