The metal-clad houses
Pastel faรงades of corrugated sheet above stone.
**Because they are designed to collapse safely โ centuries-old vernacular earthquake engineering.** โ **The problem**: Lefkada sits **in one of Europe's most seismically active zones** and has been struck repeatedly โ notably by the 19th-century quakes, that of 1948, and the 1953 earthquake that devastated the whole Ionian. โ **The solution its people developed**: **a building of two characters**. **A stone ground floor** โ heavy, stable and load-bearing. **And a light timber-framed upper storey** fixed to that frame, **clad in sheet metal** or timber. โ **The logic**: **light weight up top reduces the inertial forces** that tear a building apart in a tremor; **timber flexes rather than snaps**, absorbing the movement; โ **and if the upper floor does come down, sheet metal and wood do not kill those beneath** the way a mass of stone does. โ **The colours**: the sheeting is painted to protect it from rust โ **which turned the town pastel**. โ **It is a recognised and protected architectural heritage**, โ **and rare**: you will not see its like on another Greek island.
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**The island's capital, its coloured houses built in an earthquake-proof manner you will not see anywhere else** โ at the northern tip, where the bridge reaches the mainland. Lefkada is **the only Ionian island you can drive to**: a **shallow channel** separates it from the land, crossed by a **floating bridge** โ no ferry and no compulsory flight. โ **Earthquakes shaped its architecture**: destructive quakes struck the town repeatedly, **so its people developed a unique method** โ **a stone ground floor and a light upper storey** of timber frame clad in **coloured sheet metal**. **So if the upper floor collapses, it does not kill those below.** โ **The visual result**: streets of houses in **pastel shades and corrugated metal** โ strange, handsome and without parallel in Greece. โ It also has the fortress of **Agia Mavra** on the channel. โ The town is **not on a beach** โ driving to them is necessary.
Pastel faรงades of corrugated sheet above stone.
A fortress on the channel at the island's entrance.
A pedestrian street of cafรฉs and shops that comes alive at night.
Lefkada, 31100 Lefkada, Greece