An Author's Retreat: Experiencing The Leigh-Fermor House in Kardamyli

Many Australians and other travelers are familiar with the Benaki Museum in Athens. A visit to the Museum’s striking neo-classical building in central Athens is often part of a visit to the Greek capital.

Less well known is that the Athens building—home to the Museum of Greek Culture—is but one of nine sites operated by the Benaki in Athens and beyond. One of these, the Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor House near coastal Kardamyli on the Mani Peninsular in the southern Peloponnese, plays an important role in the Museum’s mission to “support research into history, archaeology and the study of material culture, architecture, photography, visual and performing arts and literature.” And the good news is that this remarkable house provides an opportunity that is accessible to Australians.

The typical architecture of the Leigh-Fermor House, built in the 1960s, was the result of a collaboration between Patrick and Joan Leigh-Fermor, ad Athenian architect Nikos Hadjimichalis

The Fermor House was gifted to the Museum by Sir Patrick (‘Paddy’) Leigh Fermor (adventurer, travel writer, hero of the Cretan resistance in WW2, and Hellenist) and his wife, photographer Joan. The House was designed and built by the Fermors in collaboration with Athenian architect Nikos Hadjimichalis in the mid-1960s. Overlooking the Messenian Gulf and situated on a narrow stretch of land beneath Mount Taygetus, the Fermor House is the centrepiece of a nine-acre property comprised of a productive olive grove, citrus, cypress, oaks, and an extensive Mediterranean garden. Constructed of local stone and featuring architectural remnants sourced from local houses destroyed in mid-century earthquakes, it is often described as one of the outstanding residences in Greece.

The arcade of Joan and Patrick Leigh-Fermors' home in the Mani

In addition to its architectural significance, the Fermor House also became renowned as a gathering place for the intellectual and artistic elite of Greece and beyond who the Fermors counted amongst their friends. These included literary Nobel Laureate George Seferis; artists Nikos Ghika and John Craxton; poet John Betjeman; and writers Lawrence Durrell and Bruce Chatwin.

In bequeathing the house to the Benaki Museum the Fermors fostered the House’s legacy as a centre for intellectual engagement by stipulating that it should host gatherings of scholars undertaking research and writing associated with the Museum’s broadly described areas of interest.

After a period of repair funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Fermor House was opened to researchers in 2023. The Benaki Museum now runs an international fellowship program in conjunction with universities in the United States (Princeton University; and University of California, Los Angeles) and Germany (Freie University). Two five-week Fellowship sessions are held annually in the northern winter (November-December) and spring (February-March), with each session accommodating four fellows.

The program is designed to ‘create space’ for concentrated work by providing independent living and workspaces, while giving additional support via staff-assisted housework, shopping and cooking.

In the recent winter session I had the privilege of being the first Australian to benefit from a Fellowship. Sharing the experience with scholars from the US, UK and Germany provided an ideal environment for concentrated attention to my own work, while benefiting from the stimulating exposure to other researchers.

Working at Leigh Fermor’s own writing desk I was able to make considerable progress on my current research, “Sidney Nolan, Greek Classicism and Antipodean Modernity”. The project is undertaking the first detailed account and assessment of Nolan’s painting completed while living on the Greek island of Hydra in 1955 and ’56.

Patrick Leigh-Fermor's desk at Kardamyli

The Leigh Fermor House has a strong connection to Hydra. The Leigh Fermors lived on Hydra for fifteen months in 1954 and 1955 while Paddy completed writing his book Mani, his first major travel book and a guide to the Mani peninsular. On Hydra they resided in the mansion house of their good friend, Greek painter Nikos Ghika. Paddy, often troubled by meeting deadlines, found that the isolation offered by the house high on the slopes above Hydra Port enabled him to make good progress with his writing, and both he and Joan loved the island landscape. A decade later when they came to build there own house on the Mani peninsular, they built in a location and in a style that were markedly influenced by their time in Ghika’s Hydra house.

Sadly the Ghika house was burnt down to its foundations in an accidentally started fire in 1961. The ruins of the house remain to this day and are the desolately beautiful spot continues to this day to admirers of both Ghika and the Leigh Fermors. Ghika’s ‘lost house’ also has a strong Australian connection as the next inhabitants after the Leigh Fermors departed were Sidney and Cynthia Nolan, and it was where Nolan completed an extensive series of ‘Greek paintings’.

The sitting room in the Leigh-Fermor House

My Fellowship at the Leigh Fermor House not, however, only about work. The five-week period provided ample opportunity to explore the ancient coastal and mountain villages that are a feature of a region highly regarded for its adherence to traditions of Greek rural life. Close to the House the attractive village of Kardamyli is easily reached by a spectacular walk via olive groves and oceanside cliff tops. For those who wish to use their leisure time for more strenuous outings the Mani is also home to some of Greece’s most admired hiking trails; and Kalamitsi Beach—lying directly below the House—allows fellows to follow in Paddy’s wake by swimming daily around nearby Merope Island.

Additional information about the Leigh Fermor House can be found at THE LEIGH FERMOR HOUSE - Benaki Museum

Paul Genoni

The author, Dr. Paul Genoni, with Prof. Tanya Dalziell, presented a series of seminars and writing workshops on Hydra in October, 2025 in a unique literary adventure for Writers, Readers, and Travellers, curated by Anna Kwiecinska.

'An Island in The Mind' takes place on Hydra with the authors of Half the Perfect World: Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955-1964.

The NEXT ITERATION OF THIS RETREAT will be 12-18 October 2027 on HYDRA, and priority list is now open to accept your expression of interest to join us.

For further information please contact the curator Anna Kwiecinska

anna@annakwiecinska,com

whats app +94 75 660 7713

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