In Korissia, your attention will be drawn to a chimney of 45 m. height; it is the chimney of the Enamel Factory, the only Greek factory that produced enamel utensils and the biggest one in the Mediterranean area, which functioned between 1927 and 1957, playing an important role to the economic and social life of the island. The founder o the factory was tobacco trader ioannis Gleoudis and most of the workers were refugees from Asia Minor. Before the war it used to produce household utensils and signs for public or private use. In 1936, under the direction of Athanasios Konstas, the factory got its first state order for military canteens and then expanded to the war industry by manufacturing mortars. These are the most glorious days when the factory reaches the point to export its production to the Balkans and the Middle East and occupies 300 workers.
Due to this successful procession of the enamel factory, Kea, sees a great economic boom until 1957 when the factory closed permanently, after the death of its inspired financial manager, Athanasios Konstas, and after numerous financial problems.
In 1991 its biggest part was regarded under protection for its contribution to the study of industrial culture in Greece. In 2002, a group of craftsmen who used to work in the factory and were in possession of a huge amount of machinery, molds, utensils, models and other objects laid the foundations for the creation of the “Association of Friends of the Enamel Factory of Kea “. After mobilization of the members, they gathered from other factories in Attica the machines from the factory that had been sold and are now exhibited in a municipal area in Korissia. The main objective of the association is the return of the machines in the factory and the creation of an Industrial Museum.
