This book tells of the beauty of eastern Crete, of the Prefecture of Lasithi, with its mountain ranges, vast plateaus, fertile valleys, arid plains, magnificent beaches and its ancient memories. To discover the authentic Crete one must travel slowly, drawn by curiosity not only to the great archaeological sites and monuments, but also to the landscape and the sky, the houses and the rocks, because on Crete everything is myth, legend and history: the mountains, the grottoes, the gorges, the trees, the stones and even the scent of the shrubs in bloom.
Do's & Don't at Turkish Airlines Mogadishu Office Address.pdf
Discover The Unknown Crete
2. The G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation, has for two decades
now made ongoing efforts to present to the public major
cultural events, always directly related to Tourism.
Taking as our point of departure our native island of Crete,
a crossroads of cultures from East and West, we have
sought to propose seminal exhibitions of Greek and
international Contemporary Art for art lovers.
Perhaps unique for the 48 sculptures on display in its
gardens, the MINOS BEACH ART HOTEL boasts of a
substantial collection of works by leading Greek and
international artists.
Continuing our cultural activities today, we have
established, illustrated, documented and explored
untrodden paths of Eastern Crete in a tasty 144-page
catalogue titled:
Awake your Senses
Discover the unknown Crete
Eastern Crete - book one
We trust that the publication of these practical catalogues,
which also provide information about other unknown
destinations-monasteries, archaeological sites-will enable
modern-day travellers to experience another side of Crete,
the authentic, unexplored inland regions of the island, just
like the international travellers who discovered and
recorded the charms of our land in the 17th and 18th
centuries.
Gina Mamidakis
President
G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation
4. Crete is the island of which Homer sang, "Along the wine-
dark sea, by water ringed, there lies a land both fair and
fertile", a mysterious and magical land, source of the myths
of the Greek world. Zeus, king of the gods of the ancient
Greeks, was born in a grotto here, and it was here too that
he died and came back to life.
This book tells of the beauty of eastern Crete, of the
Prefecture of Lasithi, with its mountain ranges, vast
plateaus, fertile valleys, arid plains, magnificent beaches
and its ancient memories. To discover the authentic Crete
one must travel slowly, drawn by curiosity not only to the
great archaeological sites and monuments, but also to the
landscape and the sky, the houses and the rocks, because
on Crete everything is myth, legend and history: the
mountains, the grottoes, the gorges, the trees, the stones
and even the scent of the shrubs in bloom.
4 5
5. MINOS BEACH art hotel MINOS BEACH art hotel
You can awaken your senses at Minos Beach Art hotel, with its
unique artistic environment of 45 works of Greek and foreign
artists. A local and international culinary choice of traditional
Cretan cuisine and unique gourmet tastes for exquisite dining in
our restaurants or enjoy an array of thirst-quenching cocktails in
Escape in style our two bars.
Experience the wonder of Cretan luxury with aromatic gardens
and distinctive architecture.
Located on the waterfront in the magical area of Ayios Nikolaos,
in the eastern part of Crete, the town centre is a mere ten minute An abundance of
walk away. recreational activities
and leisure facilities will
Set within a serene landscape and unique environs thus ensuring ensure fun and
an unforgettable experience in one of the 129 beautifully and entertainment
spaciously appointed bungalows. All are equipped with balconies throughout your stay
or private terrace with unique views of the azure sea and in an environment of
extensive gardens, air-condition, direct dial telephone, mini bar, tranquillity and luxury.
TV, in room safe, hairdryer and bathroom. Our Executive and
Presidential suites are spacious and offer a private swimming
pool.
6 7
6. CANDIA PARK VILLAGE CANDIA PARK VILLAGE
Experience a world of fun
and recreation
Candia Park Village is an ideal place for
families and couples
of all ages. Modelled on a traditional Cretan
village, all 222 apartments are spaciously equipped and offer a
magnificent waterfront location overlooking the turquoise
waters of Mirabello Bay.
Set in the environs of a traditional Cretan Village with extensive
gardens, the clock square, the Greek coffee house, all add to the
charm of this picturesque village of traditional hospitality.
The Candia Park Village is a complete holiday village making it
the ideal place for relaxation and amusement. Facilities include
sea water and fresh water swimming pools, Jacuzzi, tennis
courts, private beach, water sports and recreational areas for all
tastes and age groups. The highlight is our mini club for our
young friends from 4 to 12 years of age that offers stimulating
activities, competitions and games.
All apartments are spacious of 40 m2 and 60 m2 offering private
balconies or terrace. Each can accommodate from 2 to 6 persons
and are fully equipped with airconditioning, bathroom, direct
dial telephone and a kitchenette to prepare afternoon coffee or
tea or perhaps a light meal.
A variety of restaurants with a wide choice of a la carte items,
sunny bars for thirst-quenching drinks and light snacks provide a
unique ambience with panoramic views of Mirabello bay. A mini
market is available.
8 9
7. CHAPTER 1
SACRED AND PROFANE
IN THE SHADOW
OF MOUNT DIKTI
AYIOS NIKOLAOS
KRITSA
PANAYIA Y KERA
LATO
KATHARO
LASSITHI
KARPHI
8. C H A P T E R 1
Ayios Nikolaos Xepatomeni (bottomless), sacred to Athena
and Artemis who, as the legend goes,
bathed their divine bodies here.
The city declined after the Roman
conquest but acquired new importance
during the Byzantine period, when it
became the seat of the bishopric of Kamara:
of that era there remains the little church of
Ayios Nikolaos of the tenth or eleventh
century, with rare frescoes from the
iconoclast period when the ecclesiastical
authorities forbad the physical
representation of sacred images.
At the beginning of the thirteenth
century the Genoese and Venetians fought
for possession of the coast and initially the
Genoese, led by the gentleman-pirate Enrico
Pescatore, prevailed. Pescatore erected the
The small church of
An engraving
It is hard to imagine that a century and castle of Mirambelo, promptly destroyed by
the Venetians to whom the island of Crete
Ayios Nikolaos
dating from the
representing the a half ago Ayios Nikolaos - one of Crete's was assigned by the treaty of Adrianoupoli tenth or eleventh
Venetian castle of richest and liveliest cities - was, as an old century
Ayios Nikolaos:
in 1204.
today nothing
document attests, only a tiny village of just Hurriedly reconstructed, the castle was
remains of this 95 souls. Ayios Nikolaos, capital of the briefly occupied by the Turks in 1645, then
fortress Prefecture of Lasithi, has the appearance of Lake Voulismeni
a relatively new city, but its history is very
ancient, even if the evidence of its turbulent
past is now buried under modern buildings.
Thanks to its splendid position
overlooking the gulf of Mirambelo (or as the
Venetian has it, Mirabello or "beautiful view")
the site was chosen by the ancient Dorians
(ninth to seventh centuries B.C.) for the port
of Lato, an important fortified settlement
between the mountains near Kritsa. The city
was then called Lato pros Kamara and was
famous for its safe harbour. One of the
wonders of the place was considered to be
the small lake of Voulismeni - today linked
to the sea by a narrow canal and surrounded
The excavations of
the ancient town in by restaurants and cafes - a lake of dark and
the city unfathomable waters, also known as
12 13
9. C H A P T E R 1
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
OF AYIOS NIKOLAOS
Skull with a wreath of gold leaves
taken back by the Venetians who, however, from the Roman cemetery at
decided to destroy it once more themselves Potamos, first century A.D. and
Late Minoan clay sarcophagi or
for the sake of not leaving it in Turkish larnakes
hands: not one stone remains of the
celebrated fort atop the highest
hill of Ayios Nikolaos.
The city was entirely
abandoned when, during the
second half of the nineteenth Late Minoan
century, groups of exiled female
sfakiotes arrived from the worshipper
from the
mountains of western Crete, cemetery at
and the place slowly began to Myrsini
come to life again. From that
moment onwards the reborn
city would be called Ayios
Nikolaos, taking its name from
the little ninth-century
Byzantine church which was the
only surviving testimony to
Pottery dating
have resisted all the turbulence from the Late
of this history. Every 6th Minoan period
December there is a great feast
dedicated to St. Nicholas,
A medieval patron saint of fishermen. Clay vessel
archer from the One must is a visit to the city's from the
region of Sfakia: fourteenth
during the Archaeological Museum which possesses century B.C.
nineteenth beautiful finds from the past forty years of found in the
century many excavations in eastern Crete: ceramics, gold, Palace of Malia
sfakiotes arrived and
in Ayios Nikolaos idols (among which there are a large number Daedalic
of votive offerings from the Minoan peak figurines from
sanctuaries), sarcophagi and glass. the eighth and
seventh
centuries B.C.
14
10. C H A P T E R 1
Kritsa and Panayia y Kera Among the narrow
alleyways of Kritsa
Kritsaastretches outtrees aatwhitemouth of a
like lizard
above sea of olive the
dark gorge beneath the mountain heights of
the Dikti that surround two high plains, the
immense Lasithi plateau and the more na of the Creation) dating from the
modest Katharo plateau. thirteenth or fourteenth century, with three
naves and an unusual three-pointed facade,
surrounded by tall cypresses.
The arrangement of the
paintings that cover each of
the internal walls observes the
rigid hierarchy required in that
period: first God and the
angels, then the life of Jesus
and Mary, followed by
representations of Paradise and the Last
Judgement, biblical stories, saints and,
finally, images of men known for their faith.
Kritsa, with its narrow alleyways, the low
The saturated colours (the dark red of ripe
houses jumbled one over another, its very
pomegranates, the green of the leaves of
colourful traditional costumes, its numerous
ancient olive trees, the ochre and dark
kafeneion and taverns, seems the archetypal
brown of the earth) and the close-packed
"Cretan village", even if the definition
sequence of images, each different, each
"village" seems reductive for this fairly large,
powerful and vigorous, immersed in the The Byzantine
extended country town. It is so very "Cretan" church of Panayia y
semi-darkness, rather dizzy the viewer, and
that in 1957 the American film director Jules Kera with its
The white village this was, perhaps, precisely what the artist beautiful frescoes
Dassin chose Kritsa and its inhabitants for
of Kritsa above a intended.
green valley of the setting of the film He, who must die
olive trees based on Nikos Kazantzakis' famous novel
The Greek Passion which told a modern
version of the passion of Christ. Every year
on Good Friday there is a sumptuous
procession through Kritsa during which the
epitaphios, a catafalque covered with
flowers, is carried through the town, amidst
prayers, laments and song.
However, before arriving at Kritsa one
should pay a visit to one of the most
beautiful and important Byzantine churches
on Crete: the Panayia y Kera (the Madon-
16 17
11. C H A P T E R 1
made new laws, minted coins with the
Lato effigies of Artemis and Hermes and imposed
a new social order on the population of the
Lato, once an area.
important Dorian
Lato was born as a fortified city
city-state, amidst
a beautiful stretching across six terraces with a double
mountainous acropolis, a vast agora and a prytaneion,
landscape
which functioned as administrative centre
and banqueting hall for the guests of
honour who dined here sitting on the stone
benches of the hestiatorion. A monumental
stairway marks the entrance to the
prytaneion, while another, not far from a
large temple (perhaps dedicated to Apollo)
has been identified as the "theatre space".
The city flourished up until the Hellenistic
period and the ancient writers affirm that
this was the birthplace of Niarchos, valorous
general and friend of Alexander the Great.
As everywhere in Greece, side-by-side, and
on Crete the A careful observation of the structure and
the materials that form the buildings, the
sacred and the profane live
if on one hand churches and monasteries roads and the doors is worthwhile: the With its strong
walls and
record the profound religiousness of the ancient system of construction has been
monumental
population, numerous ancient ruins evoke handed down through the centuries, and buildings, Lato
the foreign powers, wars and conflicts that some of the same architectural details can is the best-
preserved of the
have tormented the island over the still be seen in the old stone-built country
Cretan cities of
centuries. Some kilometres before arriving at houses dotted among the mountains the Doric/ Clas-
Kritsa a turning off the main road leads to around Kritsa. sical period
Lato, one of the island's best-preserved
ancient cities, enclosed between two hills
below Mount Thylakas. The city-state, which
took its name from the goddess Leto,
mother of Apollo and Artemis, was founded
in the eighth century B.C. by Dorians hailing
These small
daedalic figurines from the Greek mainland, who invaded
are typical of the Crete in around 1000 B.C., chasing the native
Doric style of
inhabitants from their lands: they spoke a
sculpture that
flourished during dialect similar to Greek and proclaimed
the eighth and themselves descendents of the offspring of
seventh centuries
Hercules. Strengthened by their absolute
B.C.
authority over the island after the fall of the
Minoan and Mycenaean kingdoms, they
18 19
12. C H A P T E R 1
The Katharo Plateau
L ess well-known, smaller and more hidden
than Lasithi, the plateau of Katharo is
reached via a road (all curves) that begins at
the crest of the town of Kritsa. Climbing up
amidst silver-grey rocks that glitter in the
sunlight in contrast with the red soil, and
among low tough-leaved shrubs that form
anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures
like little sculptures, one has the sensation of
travelling through an archaic land, fixed and
solid, as though it were petrified. The few
trees have dark hat-shaped crowns that give small stone houses of the shepherds and The remains of
old stone houses
shade to the roots and offer relief to sheep peasants who took refuge here during the or mitates are
and goats in search of some cool. months of mountain pasture. Almost always part of the
rectangular in form - but also, at times, landscape as
much as the
circular like the tholos (beehive) tombs - the rocky hills and
building of the mitates involved choosing withered trees
with care the individual stones, evaluating
the shape and dimensions in order to lay
them expertly one on top of another until a
perfect wall was formed through which
there filtered neither sun, nor wind nor rain.
At the centre of the single room a robust
tree trunk with a forked top functions as a
column, holding up the roof of branches and
Halfway along the route towards the canes, whilst the entrance is marked by two
plateau (where there is a magnificent view vertical pilasters surmounted by a stone slab,
across the gulf of Mirambelo) a small road a modest version of the monumental portals
sign indicates the existence of a grotto of the ancient cities or of megalithic houses.
which is to be found about three-hundred Now abandoned and used only
metres further along the slope, not difficult sporadically, the mitates contain small signs
to reach. The triangular mouth of the grotto of an austere life: a blackened hearth, the
allows a glimpse of a steep descent through occasional cooking pot with a hole in it,
two galleries into the dark bowels of the frayed ropes for tying up the animals, or
earth amid grey and pink-ochre striped troughs cut into the stone. Observing these
rocks. lifeless houses it is natural to wonder how
Continuing along the road and looking much longer they will resist sun, wind and
A dark grotto on
the way to the attentively towards the hills, one notes the rain before crumbling definitively.
Katharo plateau mitates - now in ruins and camouflaged in
the landscape, but with a very interesting
architectural structure: these are the
20 21
13. C H A P T E R 1
Every season Curve after curve, between oaks and From Katharo a stony trail (to follow
has its own carobs with their tormented outlines that only in a robust car or on foot) climbs back
colours at the
Kataharo seem born from the rock, the mountain down towards the coast in the direction of
plateau: green suddenly opens out offering a spectacular Kroustas, initially crossing through desolate
fields in view over the entire Katharo plateau, landscapes with strange cumuli of dark
springtime,
yellow earth in surrounded by the bare mountains of the green stones that glitter in the sunlight like
summer Dikti. Fields cultivated with grain and shards of glass. The road follows the course
vegetables, fruit trees (in particular pears, of an underground river, dry on the surface,
apples, figs and pomegranates) and great which creates little oases of green amidst the
stretches of meadows for pasture, few stones. Along the highest pass there opens
houses, few men and the odd little white up extraordinary scenery: the simultaneous
church form a unified and compact pattern. vista of the northern coast of Crete looking
The plateau, which in springtime is full of towards Europe and of the southern coast
flowers and green grasses, in summer is that looks towards Africa at the point at
coloured yellow with stubble and the which the island is narrowest, on one side
ploughed soil that becomes as fine and the gulf of Mirambelo and on the other the
dusty as face-powder. Katharo is the summer Libyan Sea. A panorama from which one
reserve of the people of Kritsa and at given understands the wonders of Cretan
periods all the flocks of sheep in the zone geography.
converge here for shearing: imagine the From this point one can continue east
sound produced by the bleating of along a road that is asphalted only in parts
thousands of animals echoing through towards Kroustas and Kritsa or to Istron on
the mountains! the coast. Near Kritsa we encounter the
church of Ayios Ioannis Theologos with Ayios Ioannis
three apses and very beautiful iconostasis and Ayios
while near Kroustas one can visit the small Ioannis
Theologos: two
white church of Ayios Ioannis, decorated churches with
with rare paintings dating from 1347, with interesting
images of severe saints and fathers of the frescoes and old
icons
church.
22 23
15. C H A P T E R 1
The Lasithi Plateau
S
" ituated above the mountain summits,
flat and very beautiful, and an almost
miraculous work of nature," this is how
a Venetian document of 1600 describes the
Lasithi plateau. The plain appears like an
immense shell, not unlike a spent crater,
amid the mountain crags of the Dikti, at
a height of around 850 metres: patterned
with the rigid and regular geometries of the
fields, its divisions recall the city plan of
ancient Miletus. Here there grow fruit trees
of every kind, vegetables, potatoes, grain
and walnuts, and in the spring millions of
poppies blossom creating a red carpet that
stretches out between the mountains.
Isolated houses, small villages and the
monasteries of Vidianis and Kroustalenias
crown the plateau which, although Not many years ago,
when the place was
remaining essentially agricultural, has given
still only accessible
over to an intense tourism. on mule-back,
around 10,000
windmills ornate
with white canvas
sails pumped up the
water that served for
Monastery Vidianis the crops, but now
and Monastery very few remain.
Kroustalenia:
places of worship
26 27
16. C H A P T E R 1
Once an inaccessible region, the
plateau has been inhabited since the
The Diktaion
Neolithic period, around 7,000 years ago, Antron of
as testified by the bone fragments and tools Psychro is
discovered in the grotto of Trapeza, which believed to have
been the
remained sacred for the Minoans, as a birthplace of
dwelling place of the gods of the Zeus
underworld. Because of its protected
position amid the mountains, Lasithi
became a place of refuge for the native
The grotto of populations from the period of the Dorian
Trapeza was a invasions to the Venetian and Turkish
site of cult
activity up to
occupations, and even during the Second western Crete) the honour of being the
the Early World War. For fear of the rebel groups, in birthplace of the Greeks on supreme god,
Minoan period 1263 the Venetians deported all the Zeus. In Hesiod's Theogony we read that
inhabitants of the plateau down towards the Cronus, king of the Titans and husband of his
valley, prohibiting any form of cultivation own sister Rhea, devoured his children
for 200 years. Without its fruits, this fertile (among whom Demeter, Hades, Poseidon,
land suffered terrible famine and in the mid Hestia and Hera) because a prophecy had
1400 s it was decided to repopulate the foretold that one of them would dethrone
plain, which in the meantime had become a him. At the birth of Zeus, Rhea tricked
swampland requiring large-scale Cronus, having him swallow a rock wrapped
reclamation. During the Turkish dominion in swaddling bands in the place of the child,
too, Lasithi was continuously besieged, but and immediately afterwards she escaped
never completely taken. with the newborn into the grotto of Psychro.
Fed on the honey of the bees and the milk of For many centuries
the grotto of
the goat Amalthea and defended by the Psychro was a place
warlike Kouretes who beat their shields hard of worship, from
to cover the sound of the infant's cries, Zeus the Middle Minoan
period to Roman
was saved. Once grown, he killed his cruel times, and rich
father (not before having forced him to votive offerings
vomit up his siblings), taking on the role of have been found by
the archaeologists
chief divinity in the Greek pantheon.
In 1900, to explore the immense cavern,
as dark and humid as maternal placenta,
filled with stalactites and stalagmites of the
most varied forms and colours, the English
archaeologist David Hogarth even had to
There are numerous grottos and use dynamite to make a route for himself
caverns in the rocky walls around the plain, through the narrow underground
ideal hiding places from the most ancient passageways: there he found idols, ceramics,
of times. The most famous cave is Psychro cult objects, gold and ivory, seals and jewels,
or Diktaion Antron which contends with altars for sacrifices and a niche that was
another grotto (that on Mount Ida in identified as the "crib of Zeus".
28 29
17. C H A P T E R 1
Karphi
Onemass that rises aboveisLasithi to an
particular attraction an enormous
rocky
altitude of 1,100 metres, visible from far off.
The place came to be called Karphi (nail) for
its strange cylindrical shape. Below the
ragged peaks of the mountain there is
hidden a Late Minoan settlement completely
camouflaged amid the stone and inhabited
from 1150 to 1000 B.C. by the last groups of
Minoans - also known as Eteocretans (true Because of its
Cretans) - in flight from the Dorian invaders. particular shape,
this mountain is
The city, which could hold up to 3500 called karphi,
inhabitants, was regular in plan like Gournia, meaning nail
with the houses built one up against another
The Diktaion Antron was also a sacred site
for King Minos of Knossos, who every nine
years descended into the cavern to receive
laws directly from Zeus.
All around the plateau, amid low
vegetation and scented bushes of broom
and thyme there are to be found small
villages, some inhabited, others abandoned,
lying beneath the slope of the mountains
like birds' nests. An excursion on the Dikti,
starting from the village of Katofigi, leaves
one breathless: lunar landscapes of silver and with steep streets and flights of steps
rocks, isolated trees with majestic crowns among the rocky terracing. Explored
and rough, stony outcrops alternate with between 1937 and 1939 by the
steppe-like terrain and low archaeologist J. D. S. Pendlebury, the site has
vegetation from which yielded numerous cult objects (female idols
sheepfolds spring up. At times with raised arms, bull horns, bird heads,
one's way is barred by fencing rhytons) which testify to the survival of
and gates tied shut with knotted Minoan culture and religion even after the
ropes to keep in the livestock: fall of the palace kingdoms.
they can be opened on the The Eteocretan city
condition that one is scrupulous was built on the
slope of the giant
in closing them again to prevent
"nail"
the animals from wandering.
30 31
19. CHAPTER 2
THE AUSTERITY OF STONE
AND THE SPLENDOURS OF MALIA
OLOUS
SPINALONGA
DREROS
KARYDI
FOURNI
MONI ARETIOU
MILATOS
MALIA
NEAPOLI
20. C H A P T E R 2
The austerity of stone and
the splendours of Malia
O n Crete there are apparently-forgotten
lands, ignored by the normal tourist guides,
but which nevertheless possess a particular
beauty, "quieter" and hard to define. One of
these is the silent and almost uninhabited
hinterland above Ayios Nikolaos, Neapoli
and Malia, in complete contrast with the
overcrowded beaches that stretch out in
front of Spinalonga. Following this itinerary,
it is a good idea to travel without a precise
destination, losing oneself in the hilly
landscape, among small, partly-abandoned
villages, mills and tumble-down houses,
monasteries and white churches. The very
stones of this place recall dramatic and
painful stories, stories of sieges and of
conquests, of the battle against hunger and
illnesses of a population in continual revolt
against foreign invaders - Dorians, Romans,
Saracens, Venetians and Turks.
36 37
21. C H A P T E R 2
Spinalonga
L inked to the mainland by a narrow
isthmus, the Spinalonga peninsula
extends as far as a small rocky islet, it too
called Spinalonga. A natural harbour suitable
for small boats, Spinalonga has been known
since the time of the Minoans, and legend
has it that Daedalus, the brilliant architect of
Knossos, created for the inhabitants a very
beautiful statue of Britomartis (the Cretan The history of the island of Spinalonga
Artemis - protectress of hunters and is equally dramatic, famous for the imposing
fishermen). Documents from the fourth Venetian fort which was erected in 1579 and
century B.C. attest to the existence of a city, considered unassailable because equipped
with one of the most powerful batteries of
cannon in all
Crete. Not even
the Turks could
succeed in taking
it. Only during the
first half of the
eighteenth
century, by which
time Venice had
lost all authority over Crete, did the Turks
take possession of the little island which
Olous was a city- Olous, which controlled the maritime traffic then became a smugglers' haunt. In 1903,
state in Classical
of ships coming from Rhodes and Cyprus after Greece's liberation from foreign
Greek times and
later became an and which honoured herself in the fight dominion, Spinalonga was transformed into
important Christian against the pirates who infested that stretch a leper colony, and the bastions, the
cult centre. Of the
of coast. In the ninth century Olous was storerooms and the military barracks were
Basilica there
remains only the occupied by the Saracens, but not long occupied by hundreds of sufferers and their
floor with its black afterwards the entire city crumbled thanks families until 1953 when the sanatorium was
and white mosaic The island of
to a terrible earthquake which was followed closed and the island with its imposing walls
decoration Spinalonga was
by the sinking of the isthmus. There are few and towers became a tourist attraction. fortified by the
traces of Olous still visible on the surface: Climbing up the hills behind Elounda one Venetians in 1579
most of the city was swallowed by the has a magnificent view across the red roofs and was handed
over to the
waters. On the partly-swampy terrain the of the villages of Epano Elounda and Pines, Ottomans only in
foundations of an early Christian basilica of across the olive trees and the low stone 1715 - the last of
the seventh century with precious mosaic walls, as far as the bay with its peninsula and Venice's territories
on Crete
paving, with floral and geometric motifs, the little rock of Spinalonga.
dolphins and inscriptions in Greek have
been discovered.
38 39
22. C H A P T E R 2
Stone as art the sail-arms are broken, the giant wheels
are mute and the cogs rusty. Apart from the
windmills there also survives the occasional
Acan the seaside resort of Plaka
fter old olive-mill, its huge rooms crowned with
arches and the remains of antique
we abandon the beautiful
beaches to search out the quiet of machinery. Those restorations that have
the hills, the villages and the great taken place regard only a few mills close to
empty spaces where nature has re- the areas frequented by tourists, while the
appropriated the land. Many people others are all destined for slow destruction.
have abandoned living here, be it
for poverty and hunger, be it for
lack of natural resources or lack of
work. Where once there grew
immense fields of corn and where
olive trees were cultivated with
their small green fruit, to be
savoured with a few drops of lemon
Far from the juice and raki, now there often remain only
beaches a stony outcrops and the outlines of
completely windmills that have fallen in on themselves:
different world
appears with stony they seem spectres, from the past, of a hard
fields and old and laborious life, pierced by the lances of
abandoned houses. an invisible Cretan Don Quixote doing battle
with time and nature. Great halo-like marks In serried ranks like soldiers in arms, Giant windmills are
appear alongside the windmills, like magical atop a hill there appear the mills of the silent guardians
circles from an archaic ritual; these are level Marnelides near Lakonia, with traces of of this wild and
archaic landscape
circles of stone raised slightly higher than plaster and well-bolted doors because they
the surrounding terrain that served for the are still used by the farmers as storerooms.
threshing of the grain with mules or oxen. Along the road between Petros and Dreros,
Between Kato and Epano Loumas the two stone giants
mills are made of an ochre-coloured stone, protrude among spiny
with the remains of steps that follow the thistles: they are
curve of the roofless circular buildings: monumental mills, fairly
well-preserved, each
with an external
staircase, a doorway
framed with white
blocks of stone and a
small window. The
facade is convex, the
stones are perfectly smooth and the overall
aspect is one of robustness, but peering
inside one notes only a pile of stones, iron
and burnt wooden beams.
40 41
23. C H A P T E R 2
Similarly, ancient Dreros, a Dorian city
of the eighth century B.C. that survived into
the Roman era, is nothing but a mass
of stones and low walls dotted amidst thick
vegetation. One arrives at the site of Dreros
via a path between two hills in an
atmospheric landscape, but it takes a lot
of imagination to believe that here there
once rose up an important archaic city with
grand buildings, a vast agora and an grow out of the very mortar of the houses,
important seventh-century B.C. temple or Dories, also white, with its beautiful
Statues from the
Roman era, when dedicated to Apollo Delphinios, of whom church of Ayios Konstatinos, and also
Dreros was still a
a bronze effigy has been discovered Karydi which has the charm of an authentic
living city, are rural village with beautiful stone walling to
conserved in the together with two statues representing
Museum of Neapoli Artemis and Leto. protect the vegetable gardens and the sown
fields from the herds of livestock.
Wandering
among
streets and
Stone walls paths traced
crossing the hills
and small, fertile out by grey
plains: signs of stone walls
the farmers' toil that snake
up and
down the
hills, one
encounters
The villages are
numerous white and full of
villages: the flowers
white
Fourni full
of flowers
that seem to
42 43
24. C H A P T E R 2
Many villages have
been completely
abandoned, like, for
example, Hondro-
volaki, which overlooks
a gorge not far from
Valtos: roofless houses,
black doorways that
look like toothless
mouths, empty window
Not far from the main square of Karydi,
climbing in the direction of the windmills,
we find the ruins of the monastery of
Chardemutsa, constructed like a fort in a
perfect mixture of Venetian and traditional
Cretan styles, with a great paved courtyard,
a vestibule with pointed arches and large
rooms containing old liturgical objects.
The ruins of
monasteries like casements like blind eyes and streets
Chardemutsa or through which stray dogs run, are all that
Perambela testify
to the religious remains of a village which survives only in
devotion of the the memory of inhabitants who will never
population, and return. Just as no one will ever again inhabit
the noble
architecture the beautiful compound of a rural villa close
continues to by the village of Ayios Georgios: built of well-
remind us of the cut dry stone, with various rooms on several
richness of
monastic life floors with arches, stone steps, oven and
fireplaces and with a spectacular view of
the coast, the house must have belonged
to a fairly well-off family. The large grounds
were terraced almost right down to the sea Some farm houses
were very big and
and almonds and olive trees still grow there inhabited by large
from which no one gathers the fruit. From family clans. This
above one sees the ragged coastline with kind of rural
complex was
few isolated houses, the monastery of Ayios entirely self-
Andreas and the cave church of Ayios sufficient and could
Antonios: it is a strange scenery of ochre, provide food,
water, tools and
pink and black rocks, corroded by the wind clothes for
and by the tides which render difficult both everybody
landing and embarkation.
44 45
25. C H A P T E R 2
Aretiou Monastery
T he religious heart of this little-frequented
territory is the sixteenth-century Aretiou
Monastery (or Monastery of the Holy
Trinity) articulated in various buildings
around an ample courtyard with the
katholikon, the monks' church, which still
contains some precious seventeenth-
century icons. The founder, Marcos
Papadopoulos, gathered around him many
of the famous artists and intellectuals of the
period, and on his death in 1603 he left Aretiou
generous donations to the monastery asking Monastery
is a fortified
that they be used to continue his charitable monastery and
work for the poor, but also to support those survived the
artists of holy images who were worthy and Turkish occupa-
tion with no
talented, as was Kosmas Vartzagis, known as great damage
"the Master of Areti". Surrounded by high
walls, the monastery defended itself well
against the continual attacks by the
Ottomans, and survived. Nowadays Aretiou
Monastery is the most important monastic
complex on the Gulf of Mirambelo and is the
destination for many pilgrims and travellers
in search of tranquillity and reflection.
46 47
26. C H A P T E R 2
The Cave of Milatos
J ourneying towards the coast one arrives
at the village of Milatos built not far from the
ruins of the ancient Militos (or Miletus),
already inhabited in the Late Minoan period
and mentioned by Homer, Strabo and
Pausanias. Myth tells that the local ruler,
Pindareos, stole Zeus's favourite dog and
The grotto of gave it to Tantalus. For this impudence
Milatos is formed Pindareos and his wife were cruelly
of a series of
punished by the gods and condemned to
caverns and
corridors stretching death, while their daughters became slaves
several miles of the Furies. In the third century B.C. Miletus
was destroyed by the inhabitants of
Lyttos: only a few stones and some
tombs carved out of the rock remain
visible.
Even more terrible is the story
of the cave of Milatos, site of a
ferocious massacre at the hands of
the Ottomans. In the February of
1823 around 3600 inhabitants of
the area, men, women and children,
rebels, priests and ordinary citizens, took
refuge in the deep cavern of Milatos to
escape the cruelties of General Hassan
Pasha. Betrayed by a Turkish townsman, the
cave was besieged for a long period and
Next page: many died of hunger and thirst. Deceived by
Turning one's the Turks' false promise that in the case of
gaze towards the
surrender they would spare women and
mountains, one
notes a low hill children, the men left the cavern, but to the
with the white cry of "death to the infidels" the massacre of
church of Ayios
the fugitives began. Every last one of them
Elias: this was the
peak sanctuary was killed. In a large space inside the grotto
of Malia, in which a catafalque has been laid out with
the votive
commemorative stones and a small cave
offerings to the
gods were church dedicated to St. Thomas where each
deposited year the martyrs of Milatos are
commemorated.
48 49
27. C H A P T E R 2
of the Minoans: the Throne Room with stairs
Malia that lead to the upper floor, the banqueting
chamber and the crypt, a monumental
R ight on the border between the
stairway with beside it a kernos (a circular
table with a central hollow and with 34
Prefectures of Lasithi and Heraklion the vast smaller bowls along the edge for the ritual
archaeological area of Malia stretches out, offering of the first fruits), the archive and
Golden bee with its grand Minoan palace, second only a vast portico held up by columns alternated
pendant from to Knossos and Phaestos. Tradition has it with pilasters which gave access to the great
the Chryssolakos
that Malia was the residence of Sarpedon, palace storerooms.
cemetery at Malia
the younger brother of Minos and Other courtyards and numerous
Rhadamanthus, all born of the union of Zeus corridors lead to the wing reserved for
and Europa. habitation, to the guest apartments and
to the
artisans'
workshops.
Almost all of
the spaces are
paved with
the typical
local stone, a
bluish
limestone,
and a
sandstone
The most ancient part of the palace known as
dates back to the Middle Minoan period ammouda. Directly beyond
the entrance one
(circa 2000 B.C.) but of that era there remain The necropolis, also known as can make out the
few traces because the site was destroyed by Chryssolakos ("the gold mine") for the great huge circular
a violent earthquake and completely rebuilt quantity of gold objects discovered in the storerooms,
called kouloures,
in around 1650 B.C.. Smaller than Knossos tombs, is to be found down by the sea and which held the
and Phaestos, but for this no less interesting is laid out like the palace of the living with reserves of grain
in its structure and functions - religious, rooms and porticos. The excavations at Malia for the
population that
political and economic - the palace complex have rendered up a vast quantity of splendid inhabited the
ceased to "live" in 1450 B.C. after a objects, jewels and ceramics dating from various quarters
devastating fire. The site was discovered the First Palace period to the Second Palace around the Palace
Stone kernos for in 1915 by the Greek archaeologist Joseph period, among which are a sceptre in the
ritual offerings at Hadjidakis, while from the 1950s onwards form of a leopard, some very fine jewellery
the Palace of Malia the excavations have continued with the such as the pendant with two bees and
French Archaeological School of Athens a gold pommel from a sword-hilt embossed
under the direction of Henri van Effenterre. with the figure of a vaulting acrobat,
Opening off the great Central Court, preserved in the museums of Heraklion and
with an altar set into the paving, there are Ayios Nikolaos.
a series of rooms essential to court life
50 51
28. C H A P T E R 2
Tales of Neapoli man, joined the
rebels and fled to
and surroundings
the plain of Lasithi.
Her true identity
Travelling back towards Ayios Nikolaos was revealed when
the swipe of a
and passing through a deep gorge crowned
by the Monastery of Ayios Georgios Selinari, sword slashed
one arrives at Neapoli, a lively agricultural open her clothes,
town beneath the mountain of Mavro Dasos but she continued
which has a beautiful little museum with to fight until her
finds from the excavations of Dreros and death. The
The so-called
statues from the Roman era. In 1340 at Kares, monument "Roman door"
the oldest part of Neapoli, a certain Petros commemorating and white steps
at Houmeriakos
Philargi was born, a young man of great this Cretan "Joan
intelligence who was sent to study in Paris of Arc" is to be found at the entrance to the
and in Oxford in order to follow a career in town of Kritsa.
the priesthood. He became archbishop of
Milan and then cardinal, and finally, at the
time of the schism in the Western Church
(which saw the curia of Rome in opposition
to that of Avignon) Petrus Philatri was made
The small Museum Pope, taking the name of Alexander V: he
of Neapoli contains held the position for only a year, from 1409
an important
collection of statues
to 1410 and died poisoned by his
from Classical and adversaries.
Roman times A few kilometres from Neapoli, in the
little village of Houmeriakos there remain
some traces of Venetian influence, among
which a little villa with
an attractive ashlar- Again travelling on from Neapoli,
work doorway, which climbing up in the direction of the Lasithi The monastery
the Cretans call a plateau, one can visit Kremaston of Kremaston was
Roman door. The town Monastery, sited on a rocky ridge (hence its
recently restored
chronicles recount name which means "suspended"), which is
that in this house there inhabited by a community of monks.
once lived a Turk Founded in 1593 and built like a small fort,
called Hussein who the monastery has been rebuilt several
having fallen for the times, and in the twentieth century opened
The fountain in
daughter of the local a school for children and ceded its
Houmeriakos was priest, kidnapped her with the intention of agricultural lands to the Agricultural
built during the making her his lover. But at nightfall the
long Turkish Commission which turned them into a
occupation of
maiden strangled the pasha, let herself model farm.
Crete down from the window disguised as a
52 53
30. CHAPTER 3
FROM COAST TO COAST
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS
IERAPETRA
GOURNIA
VASILIKI
EPISKOPI
KAVOUSI
CHAMEZI
ACHLADIA
MOCHLOS
PSIRA
31. C H A P T E R 3
Where nature is king
BCrete narrows like aIerapetra theand
etween Istron and island
of bottleneck
Near Istron the stretches a mere 16 kilometres between
waters of the gulf the gulf of Mirambelo and the Libyan sea.
of Mirambelo are
a deep turquoise The trip will take us through the villages of
in contrast with the Thryptis and Orno mountains as far as
the grey rocks, the gates of Sitia. Here nature reigns, barely
the evergreen
trees and the grazed by the hand of man: centuries-old
rock-plants in olive trees, wild figs, shady plane trees,
bloom flower-filled fields, arid open spaces, deep
gorges, small torrents and multicoloured
rocks.
58 59
32. C H A P T E R 3
From Gournia to Ierapetra
A short deviation from the main coastal In the Middle
Minoan period
road leads us towards the Monastery of
Gournia had its own
Faneromeni, clinging to the mountain top. local governor who
The road meanders amid bushes of thyme resided in a palace
high on the hill
and sage as far as the little cave church of
the monastery which houses a precious icon
of the "Death of the Virgin", believed to have
Orthodox miraculous powers. Legend tells of a
monasteries
are always
shepherd who had lost his way during the
hidden night, but was drawn to a light in the The several-floored houses and the
away in silent darkness: it came from the holy icon and, in shops, which face onto the lanes, the steps
places far from
thanks to the Virgin who had helped him and around the marketplace, form a
the crowds
find his way once more, the first church of compact urban weave where the walls back
Faneromeni was erected on the site. one onto the other and often share roofs.
The excavations between 1901 and 1904 by
the American archaeologist
Harriet Boyd-Hawes, have
yielded up many brightly-
coloured ceramics with
marine motifs and various
everyday objects like mortars,
millstones and jars for oil and
for wine. Continuing on
towards Ierapetra one can see
the remains of the Proto-Minoan settlement
Back on the main road, the ancient city
of Vasiliki, almost directly opposite the
of Gournia appears, luminous, on a low hill,
clean break made by the Ha gorge which
like a map open to the skies: one can clearly
looks as though it had been cut open
see the walls of the houses, the streets and
the courtyards, so much so that it is known
as the "Minoan Pompei". Already inhabited
in the Early- and Middle-Minoan era, the At the foot of
the Ha gorge
ruins that we see today belong largely to the archaeologists
Late Minoan era (circa 1600 B.C.) and to the have discovered
period of the arrival of the Mycenaeans who remains of an
ancient settlement
erected a sanctuary here. The inhabitants of
Gournia were artisans, merchants and
Gournia, the fishermen, but they too wanted to erect a
"Minoan Pompei"
palace and a theatre space of their own
modelled on Knossos, naturally much
inferior in scale.
60 61
33. C H A P T E R 3
with one triangular pediment and one
arched, and by an unusual brick dome with
many niches that were once frescoed.
Ierapetra, the ancient Hierapytna,
is the largest port-town on the southern
coast of Crete. It grew to be an important
centre in the Graeco-Roman era when it was
furnished with temples, baths, an
amphitheatre and two theatres, porticos
and an aqueduct, of which, however, there
remains no trace. In the thirteenth century
the Venetians built an imposing castle with
battlements and ramparts. The Turks also
The inner walls by a giant's sword. Vasiliki too, lying in the
of the houses
embellished Ierapetra with mosques and
shade of wind-bent olive trees, retains the
of Vasiliki were fountains and there are corners of the city
originally perfect outline of the city layout and is
that retain a decidedly oriental aspect.
plastered and famous for the discovery of a great quantity
painted red of "flame-mottled" pottery with decorations
in red and black, known as Vasiliki Ware. The
corners of the small complex are orientated
towards the four points of the compass, as The Venetian and
Ottoman ruins are
was the practice in the constructions of Asia the most attractive
Minor: the settlement was destroyed. monuments in
The town of Episkopi, midway along Ierapetra, while
nothing has
our route, has ancient origins as is testified survived from the
by the sarcophagi found by pure chance Minoan, Greek or
whilst road works were being done near Roman periods
the double church of Ayios Georgios and
Ayios Haralambos. The church dates back to
the seventh or eighth century and is
On 26th June 1798 the city had an
characterised by the double facades
illustrious guest in the person of Napoleon
Bonaparte who, returning from the Egyptian
campaign, spent a night here in a small
house (now known as spiti tu Napoleonta or
Napoleon’s House) not far from the church
of Afendi Christou.
Ierapetra has a fine Archaeological
Museum with glass cabinets brimming with
Minoan finds, ceramics, painted sarcophagi
and statues dating from the Classical,
Hellenistic and Roman eras.
62 63