Pagida

Pagida is a small village of southeastern Chios, with renowned musicians and masons. Most of its inhabitants today are mastiha growers and olive oil producers. According to folk tradition, Pagida used to be the administrative centre of the surrounding area. It had a court of law and notary offices. That evidence is confirmed by the nick-name Notaros that was once common among villagers. So that is where administrative acts took place and the guilty were "trapped", hence the name Pagida (=trap). There is no historical evidence as to the year of founding of this settlement. The way it was built is quite simple, though. As it usually happened in the past, each family that owned a field would build a house there. They gradually started to build their houses close to each other for company, so that is how the settlement was created. In 1881, it was leveled during the "disaster", as older generations referred to the earthquake, so not many aspects of its past architecture were spared.