“I never fastened my door night or day”,Thoreau wrote in his masterpiece, Walden, published in 1854. “And yet my house was more respected than if it had been surrounded by a file of soldiers. The tired rambler could rest and warm himself by my fire, the literary amuse himself with the few books on my table, or the curious, by opening my closet door, see what was left of my dinner.”

After finally getting the stone house mostly in order, it was time to change the worn door and build a new one that would fit the measured dimensions.

Since we still don’t have electricity at ISSA, it also means we can’t really use all the tools we already need. So, one day our dear friend Fabek, an architect who now lives between Vienna and Vis and is building great things, simply offered to build us a new door.

Fabek is a strong man, so he was able to carry the 50 kg door by himself.

But the real adventure started when we arrived near Tito’s cave and had to carry the door up the hills.

After 30 minutes of breaking through the woods with the massive 50 kg door above our heads, we finally made it to the house (the climb usually lasts approximately 10 minutes)

One day soon, after several hundred climbs uphill, sweat, and friendship, you will be able to look through the little heart and see the ISSA island library in the hills. In the meantime, we are looking for you to join us!

“How concrete everything becomes in the world of the spirit when an object, a mere door, can give images of hesitation, temptation, desire, security, welcome and respect. If one were to give an account of all the doors one has closed and opened, of all the doors one would like to re-open, one would have to tell the story of one’s entire life.”

Gaston Bachelard The Poetics of Space: