A bit of History...
“Kalli-rachi” means Good Ridge and was so called by the first villagers because the cone-like hill hid them from the pirates that ravaged the Greek coastline and islands. The original village was built behind the hill, not on the slopes looking out to sea. Correspondingly, the pirates called it Kaki Rachi, meaning Bad Ridge!
Who was Annousa?
Annousa was great grandmother of Yiorgos Economidis, the owner's father. She was the daughter of a ship owner and captain from the island of Hydra. She was also an active member of the crew of one of their ships* (kaÏŠkia) along with her three brothers; it is said, Annousa “manned” the sails. Trading around the Aegean at the time of the Ottoman rule over Greece, the family was also covertly arming the islanders for the fight for independence.
In Thassos, the arms were brought ashore at Thimonia, a beach below Theologos, the then capital village high in the centre of the island. They were received and hidden by men from various villages, led by Hatzigeorgis, from Theologos. Dimitros Economidis from the village of Kallirahi was one of them. Annousa fell in love with him and decided to marry and stay in Thassos.
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Dimitros brought his bride to the house in Kallirahi, which at that time consisted of only the rear half of the present-day house. The doorway was low and the house small. Used to very different circumstances in Hydra, Annousa’s father was not impressed! But Annousa’s answer was firm. “I’m marrying the man, not the house” were her words, according to family legend.
Annousa was part of a Greek tradition of dynamic women, which included Bouboulina, the most famous of all women sea captains who fought against the Ottoman rule. Again according to family lore, Bouboulina, who came from Hydra, was a cousin of Annousa's.
Highly respected and known as a "Kapitanissa" herself, Annousa had a significant voice in the administrative council of the village and also participated in the central council of the island. Her descendants, up until the time when her great grandson Yiorgos started school, were known in the village as the “Annousides”. Only then, in the late 20s, did the teacher apparently insist that the great grandchildren were registered under the family name of Economidis (Οικονομίδης).
It was Annousa’s son who built on the second half of the house, in 1902, as the year inscribed on a corner stone of the wall proclaims.
* N.B. As a form of insurance, the ship owners of the time usually owned a number of boats jointly so that no single family was ruined if a boat and/or its cargo was lost.
