Antonis, Georgios, Konstantinos and Nikolaos, were the four children of Stefanos Kyriazis who lived in Pythagorion of Samos. During the first years of their professional activity, the brothers were employed in their father’s companies, such as in the ironworks, in the iron trade, in the import of olive trees from Italy, but also in a workshop for drilling water wells. Due to the financial difficulties that prevailed at that time, Antonios and Georgios broke up with their father and were forced to leave for Egypt and look for a job in an olive mill owned by Italians. The honesty and hard work of the two young people was recognized by the management of the mill and they were quickly upgraded and took over managerial positions. Over the years, they gained a lot of experience and know-how and this gave them the impetus to plan their next professional steps. The nostalgia for their place and their love for the homeland, gave them the impetus to return to Greece and specifically to Crete, which was a great olive producer. There they met a Cretan with whom they collaborated and were given the opportunity to establish their first olive mill. Their business developed very well and gaining financial comfort, they sold their share to the Cretan partner and proceeded to the next business step that would take place in their homeland, Samos. At that time primitive conditions prevailed on the island, as the production of oil was based on the muscular strength of humans and the use of animals. Oxen or mules, turned the yoke and the millstones breaking the olive and the press was a wooden construction. With the technological experience that the two young people now possessed in the production of oil, they started to make the first hydraulic presses for the compression of the olive dough, bringing in their place the industrial revolution in the field of oil mills. The “Kyriazi” brothers, expanded their business in the area of the olive mills in Samos and built their first olive press in the area of Mavratzaia, the second in the village of Chora, the third in Karlovasi and the fourth and last in the village of Agios Konstantinos, which finally became the property of Konstantinos Kyriazis, one of the four Kyriazis brothers. In 1945, Georgios Kyriazis, son of Konstantinos Kyriazis, due to his engineering knowledge (he was an aircraft engineer in the Middle East), upgraded the mill by adding various components to increase the amount of production and ensure faster performance of the machines. , thus managing to industrialize the oil production process. In 1969, the Kyriazi Olive Mill stopped its operation, as the new three-phase centrifugal technology that prevailed in the olive mills all over Greece, displaced the old technology of the hydraulic press. At the same time, the business was characterized as financially unprofitable, as tourism developed rapidly in Samos and the owner of the mill, George Kyriazis, turned his professional interest to more profitable tourism companies.
In 2000, Dimitris Kyriazis, grandson of Konstantinos Kyriazis, undertook the design of the exhibition space of the “Kyriazi” olive mill. Restoration work on the building began in 2004 and lasted about five years.
The facilities of the “Kyriazi” Olive Mill and the rare archival material that was excavated through its ruins, highlight the economy and society of Samos at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, as well as the revolution of machine technology. In the exhibition spaces of the factory, the basic stages of olive processing are presented (crushing of the fruit, compression of the olive pulp, separation of the oil with the water) and the evolution of the technological means of motorized oil production in Samos.
The visitor is also informed about the various uses of olives and oil and the various varieties of olives grown in Samos from antiquity to the present day. The visit to the showroom of the factory, brings us memories from the past about the pioneers of industrialization and the way of life of the owners, workers and engineers and travels us to everyday images of another era.