Silk of Soufli, Thrace - One Of The Best Qualities in The World!

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did you know that the northeastern Greek city of Soufli is the only producer of silk which is considered to one of the best qualities in the world? In fact the silk produced here is the only one of its sort in Greece, but in all of Europe as well! Greece has a long tradition in silk making. Silk from this region for making dresses, suits, bedding, can may be rather expensive but knowing that it is  made from one of the finest silks in the world makes it totally worth it. Besides it promotes and supports the Greek economy and culture. Hopefully, cooperation with companies abroad will create many jobs for Greeks living in Soufli, a positive development that will certainly give a boost to local economy.

In the centre of the Prefecture of Evros, 65km from the city of Alexandroupolis, by the river Evros, lies the town of Soufli. The town, with 7,500 inhabitants, is built on the slopes of the hill of Saint Elias, and it constitutes one of the main sights of the region of Thraki. The exact date of the establishment of Soufli is lost in the era of Byzantine greatness. Over the centuries, it has always maintained its pure Greek identity. "Little Greece", as it was known event to its occasional conquerors.

Towards the end of the 19th century, sericulture became the main occupation for the residents of the area, and Soufli became the centre of processing and distribution of the products. During this time, in the worthy hands of the local women and on the looms that almost every house was equipped with, silk was the main material for the clothing of the family and for the decoration of the homestead. In the middle of the 20th century, the silk textiles of Soufli were exported around the world and they became renowned for their quality and artistry. To this day, and despite the use of synthetic fibres, the "city of silk", as Soufli is now known, continues to be the centre of Thracian tradition, while the handicrafts of the residents are used to decorate many spaces and they also make excellent and original gifts.

Soufli silk is considered to be of the best quality, even better than the Chinese, and the prospects lying ahead for the area are huge given that it is the only place in Greece and in Europe that breeds silkworms (sericulture) and processes the silk threads from the cocoons.

Soufli, in Evros prefecture, is notable for the silk industry that flourished there in the 19th century, and is also known as the Town of Silk. Soufli is a city in the Evros regional unit, Greece, notable for the silk industry that flourished there in the 19th century. The town stands on the eastern slope of the twin hill of Prophet Elias, one of the easternmost spurs on the Rhodope Mountains. It is situated in the center of the Evros regional unit, 65 km north of Alexandroupoli and 50 km southwest of Orestiada, on Greek National Road 51/E85 which links Alexandroupoli with Edirne and the Bulgarian border at Ormenio. The town center is only 500 m from the Evros River. Soufli is the seat of the municipality of Soufli.

The older Silk Museum in Soufli (Thrace) belongs to the Museum Network of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP). It is housed in the Kourtidis Mansion (1883) and was set up in 1990. The purpose of the permanent exhibition housed on the ground floor of the Kourtidis Mansion is to show the pre-industrial techniques by which silkworms were bred (sericulture) and silk was woven. It also deals with the socio-economic significance of these activities for Soufli and the surrounding area. The exhibition is arranged as four units with 46 separate sets of exhibits of two -dimensional documentation and information material (texts, photographs, drawings, maps) and items traditionally associated with sericulture and silk-weaving.

The first exhibition unit relates the history of silk over time, beginning with China, continuing through Greek and Roman antiquity and Byzantium and covering both the West and the Ottoman period. The second exhibition unit has as its theme the stages in the breeding of silkworms from the production of the "silk-seed" to the suffocation of the cocoons. The third exhibition unit is devoted to the manufacturing of silk, from the cleaning and sorting of the cocoons to the weaving of the fine silks that Soufli is famous for. The fourth exhibition unit deals with the broader socio-economic background against which silk-weaving developed in Greece and the rest of Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular emphasis on the rise and decline of the silk industry in Soufli and its contribution to the development of the town. The printed matter on the Silk Museum consists of a leaflet/poster and a monograph entitled Sericulture in Soufli. An educational programme entitled "Unwinding a cocoon ..., addressed to the first classes of primary scholl and covering traditional sericulture and silk-weaving, has been prepared as part of the MELINA project (Ministry of Culture, Benaki Museum).

A more recent addition to the silk museums in Soufli is the Art of Silk Museum belonging to the Tsiakiris Family Silkmills. Opened in September 2008 in a renovated Neoclassical building (1886) on the main thoroughfare of the town, it displays the full sequence of sericulture (with live silkworms on show most of the year) and shows the more industrial side of silk manufacture and weaving incorporating fully functional machinery and exhibits from the Tsiakiri factory and videos of the various stages and methods of production. It features both live and electronically assisted guided tours (available in several languages).


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