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At the edge of this earthen strip, the outskirts of the city and at the other, in the lagoon, Tourlida, with these strange houses, called pelades. These small houses are made of straw, and in the beginning, in their first form, they were made of sticks, cans, straw, and vourla and later, they became wooden.

Pelades were used by fishermen throughout the lagoon to store their tools and utensils and stay there alone during the winter. In the middle of that time, with boats without engines and a lack of means of transport, Messolonghi fell far away from them and so they only went to the city every ten days or so.

In the summer, however, they took their family with them and they all stayed there together.

Then came motor boats, cars and roads. Transportation became easier, life became more comfortable and pelades were abandoned. Some private individuals and old fishermen, however, returned to Tourlida in the 1940s and 1950s. They renovated the old, dilapidated, pelades at their own expense - always in the traditional way, and maintain them to this day, with all the effort, expense and especially the hand that is needed to keep a house in the water or in unstable soils.

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Photo Source: messolonghibylocals.com