Tsarouchi dangle

58.00

A premium quality hanging charm.

Handcrafted in Sterling silver 925 in our workshop in Athens.

Description

When one thinks of Greece´s War of Independence in 1821 and the great heroes (Kolokotronis and Karaiskakis) they would inevitably think of the foustanella, the skirt-like garment, and the tsarouchi, the typically-Greek shoe with the big round tassel on the tip.
The tsarouchi is a lightweight leather shoe worn by villagers in mainland Greece until the end of the 19th century. Yet, the Greeks added more significance to the design after the liberation from the Turks. For instance, the tassel on the tip symbolizes the small tree of liberty and inside the tassel there is a blade that symbolizes the kick that the brave man who wears it will give to every enemy who dares to hurt the little tree of liberty, and if the blade is real, then it becomes a good hidden weapon for close combat.
Today the rustic shoes are part of the uniform of the Evzones, the select guards of the President and the Presidential Mansion. In this case though, on the bottom of the tsarouchi an evzonas is wearing carries about 50 nails, something that makes his gait more imposing and threatening.

A beautiful, meaningful and funny pendant.