Alexandra Stara and Torsten Schlicht: ‘The Rural Iconstands of Zagori’
Seminar with Alexandra Stara and Torsten Schlicht on the topic ‘The Rural Iconstands of Zagori’, as part of a series of talks on The Human Face of Architecture; hosted by Eric Parry Architects on 22 January 2026.
Eric Parry 00:00:07
Alexandra Stara 00:02:50
Torsten Schlicht 00:05:19
Alexandra Stara 00:20:43
Carolyn Steel 00:55:40
David Bass 00:57:57
Christian Frost 01:00:54
Jon Blair 01:04:00
Brendan Woods 01:05:35
Kenneth Frampton 01:10:08
Patrick Lynch 01:10:44
Eric Parry 01:14:17
This talk focuses on the small stone shrines bearing a saint’s icon of the Zagori region, a remote cluster of 46 mountainous villages in NW Greece. These ‘iconstands’ survive mostly from the past three centuries, while being part of a vernacular architectural tradition that goes back to antiquity. Their role combines personal commemoration with a mode of ‘place-making’ through cult practices and accompanying symbolic structures. Although their more obvious role is to sanctify (or ‘deify’) the inhabited landscape through building, the extent to which individual and communal identities of the inhabitants are woven with these structures and the demarcation of ‘their’ place on earth, also reveals the distinctly human face of architecture.
Despite Zagori’s inscription as UNESCO Cultural Landscape in 2023, its iconstands have never been studied, with even their number and locations remaining uncertain, often forgotten along overgrown paths that once connected the villages. A research project, led by the two presenters, aims to shed light on this vulnerable and neglected part of architectural heritage. The project aims to identify and interpret the Zagori iconstands not as autonomous objects, but as manifestations of a tradition where building, environment and meaning are intrinsically linked, pointing to architecture’s foundational role of mediation between humanity and the cosmos.
Alexandra Stara is reader and associate professor of the history and theory of architecture at Kingston University London and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is a qualified architect in her native Greece, with master’s degrees from UCL and Cambridge University, and a doctorate in the history of art from Oxford University. She has been lecturing and publishing on art and architecture for the past thirty years.
Torsten Schlicht is an architect and architectural photographer based in London. Originally from Hamburg, he obtained the diploma in architecture and urban planning from the city’s Hochschule für Bildende Künste. He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and has realised a variety of projects in the UK, France, Germany and Switzerland as practicing architect and client representative. His photographic work on buildings and landscapes has featured in a variety of international publications.
