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

JUDITH LANGE MARIA STEFOSSI
awake your senses
DISCOVER THE UNKNOWN CRETE
Eastern Crete - Book One
Publication of this book has been made possible thanks to Gina
Mamidakis, President of the G.& A. Foundation and bluegr Mamidakis
Hotels group, and long-time patron of culture and the arts. The book is
dedicated to those ever-curious travellers who wish to learn more of
the beautiful region of eastern Crete.
© copyright text and photographs by Judith Lange - Maria Stefossi
© copyright edition by the G.& A. Foundation and bluegr Mamidakis hotels group.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written
permission from the authors.

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

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

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

CHAPTER 1
SACRED AND PROFANE
IN THE SHADOW
OF MOUNT DIKTI
AYIOS NIKOLAOS
KRITSA
PANAYIA Y KERA
LATO
KATHARO
LASSITHI
KARPHI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER 2
THE AUSTERITY OF STONE
AND THE SPLENDOURS OF MALIA
OLOUS
SPINALONGA
DREROS
KARYDI
FOURNI
MONI ARETIOU
MILATOS
MALIA
NEAPOLI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER 3
FROM COAST TO COAST
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS
IERAPETRA
GOURNIA
VASILIKI
EPISKOPI
KAVOUSI
CHAMEZI
ACHLADIA
MOCHLOS
PSIRA

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

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

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

C H A P T E R 3
Kavousi and the
Thryptis and Orno mountains
Theolive trees. Here one canwith a sea of
road to Kavousi begins
dark admire the
oldest olive tree in Crete: how many years
or centuries old it is no one knows, but its
immense trunk, rough and scarred with
hardened swellings like the body of a
prehistoric animal, gives the impression
that this tree/monument has seen more
things than we humans are capable of
imagining. Its branches were used to weave
the crowns for the Athens Olympics in 2004.
On the mountain that overlooks the The circular tombs
of Kavousi are
village of Kavousi one can make out the partly hidden by
foundations of two archaic settlements from flowering bushes
the Early Bronze Age: a hilltop encampment
and a settlement built around a rocky terrace
with a view across the sea. Following the
Dorian invasion the Eteocretans chose the
sites on which to build their villages with
care: fairly inaccessible, but with an ample
vista that allowed them to control passing
traffic without been seen. Hidden among
luxuriant bushes of yellow-gold broom and
wild sage there are numerous tholos tombs
in which arms, jewellery and armour of the
Geometric period have been found.
64 65

C H A P T E R 3
From ancient Kavousi one can continue
along rough roads (to be braved in a four-
wheel-drive) that wind through the
Thryptis and Orno mountains. One has to
be a lover of wild and archaic landscapes to
appreciate this itinerary which takes us
through bare mountains, passes hazardously
above deep ravines and where the only
signs of life are the birdsong and the
bleating of the goats. Once up in the
Thryptis mountains it is a good idea to make
a excursion on foot as far as the Ha gorge
among perfumed bushes and silvery rocks.
The best way to
discover the beauty
of this countryside
is by travelling
slowly and
whenever possible
on foot
a rest at the little kafeneion which is frequen-
ted by the farmers and shepherds of the area.
Having arrived at Chryssopighi the road
is asphalted once again: further ahead on the
right one comes to the pretty village of Orino
The Orno mountains
with its myrtle bushes and their white
are formed of many
headily-perfumed flowers, while on the
rocky cones with dark,
slopes of the Orno one arrives at Dafni and
The bare solitary trees, where
Skordillo amid great groves of olives. At that
mountainside the white road passes
is the reign of point a geological peculiarity has created
through a valley with
sheep and bright white rocks of limestone and chalk that
goats isolated cultivated
thrust up from the dark earth like sharp
fields, figs, pome -
blades and calcified bones. In the fissures
granates and even
there grow anemones and cyclamens that
vines which grow at a
bring to mind certain details, painted with
surprisingly high
brush-tip, in medieval miniatures.
altitude. A single small
village of just a few
houses, Bembonas,
offers the chance for
66 67

C H A P T E R 3
The stones of history
Beyond theAchladia and venturing along
tiny hamlet of Riza there lies
the village of
the little roads among olives groves,
orchards and vineyards, one can go in search
of a Minoan villa and a tholos tomb, well-
hidden by the trees. The perfectly preserved
tholos in all probability dates back to 1300
B.C., to the Mycenaean period. A long
dromos, a ramp faced with large dressed
stones, runs down towards a doorway
formed of great monolithic blocks which
leads into a dark chamber roofed with a Decidedly more interesting is the
dome formed of horizontal courses of stone ancient Minoan complex of Hamezi, dating
[corbelling]. The burial chamber has a false back to 2000 B.C., which occupies the entire
door which perhaps served to allow crest of a bare hill called Souvloti Mouri
communication between the world of the ("pointed hill"). Built of a rosy stone, and in a
dead and that of the living. strange elliptical form (the only one of its kind
on Crete) it was long believed to be a peak
sanctuary, The view from the
but was more top of the hill of
probably a Hamezi looks over
large olive groves
rural villa and vineyards right
housing down to the sea's
several edge
families who
found
themselves
forced to
adapt the
shape of the
house to that
of the hillside
The tholos Rendered almost invisible by the olive terrain. The
tomb at grove that grows above it, the Minoan villa
Achladia is the rooms are
best preserved at Achladia is a large rural construction with arranged in
in eastern Crete various rooms built around an expansive a circle around a deep cistern which served
courtyard with a kiln for producing ceramics. to collect rainwater because the hill has no
Of the villa there remain only the foundations, springs or wells.
which do however give a good idea of how
Minoan country life was organised.
68 69

C H A P T E R 3
Psira and Mochlos
Turning back ontomeandersroad towards
the main
Ayios Nikolaon one through the
mountains as far as a panoramic
promontory, after the village of Mirsini, from
which there can be seen two small islands, It was once possible
to reach the small
Mochlos and Psira, and also a huge gypsum
island of Mochlos
quarry which over time has taken on the on foot, walking
Nowadays the In the modern village of Hamezi there appearance of a pyramid. along the isthmus
traditional
is an interesting Folklore Museum with
handicrafts of
Crete are to be traditional agricultural instruments and
found only in craftsmens' tools, costumes, furnishings and
the Folklore
finely embroidered cloths shown in various
Museum
rooms which recreate the atmosphere of
a real peasant home of the past.
Mochlos emerges from the water for
only 45 metres, and once formed part of the
mainland, but during the Roman era the
Basket-shaped waves began to climb and submerged the
vase with isthmus. Mochlos is one of the most ancient
double axes -
the symbol of
settlements on Crete, and in its rock tombs,
Minoan where the local rulers were buried, there
Gold diadem from
religion and have been found rich grave-goods: gold Early Minoan
power - from
the island of
jewellery in filigree, silver cups, alabaster period, found at
Mochlos
Psira vases and objects in faience.
70 71

C H A P T E R 3
The bold, dark
profile of the
Psira is larger and further from the
rocky island of coast and was inhabited from the time of
Psira the Minoans until the Byzantine era. It had
an important port with the houses built
amphitheatre-style around it and was well
sheltered from the winds. Psira controlled
The gypsum the rich maritime trade between Crete and
quarry once
ruined the
the East and the inhabitants must have been
coastline but very wealthy merchants: their houses were
now seems part frescoed and decorated with reliefs of very
of the natural
landscape
fine workmanship, worthy of a royal palace.
72 73

CHAPTER 4
ETEOCRETANS AND RELICS
OF THE VENETIANS
SITIA
PETRAS
TRIPYTOS
AYIA PHOTIA
ZOU
PRINIAS
ETIA
VOILA
LITHINES
MAKRYYIALOS
KOUFONISSI

C H A P T E R 4
The Venetian castle
of Sitia in an old
Starting outto theSitia (the city which has
from
lent its name whole region, in that
engraving. Today
the fortress, known Lasithi is simply a distortion of the Venetian
as kazarma and "La Sitia"), our journey takes us into the most
which was
hidden lands of the Eteocretans, the "true
destroyed by the
Ottomans, has been Cretans", who, after the destruction of the
partially restored. Minoan palaces, preserved the customs, the
The Venetian
language and the religion of the Minoans for
influence in
architecture and many centuries. Following the end of the
arts is still to be felt ancient world it was, however, the Venetians
in many places
who left a strong imprint on the region, and
around Sitia
their traces can be found in the cities, the
small villages and the ruins dotted about
the territory. In a document of the era, the
Venetians describe the population of Sitia
as "peaceable and respectful of the laws
and lovers of feasts".
The Turkish presence was also strong,
governing the region with an iron fist, and
the occupiers were guilty of innumerable
massacres many of which were the work of
Khaireddin Barbarossa, a pirate in the pay
of the Ottomans.
78 79

C H A P T E R 4
Sitia from Minoan times
to Venetian dominion
The Venetian Castle
Like a white amphitheatre, Sitia hugs the overlooking the
town of Sitia
bay with its port from which the ships that
sail towards the islands of the Dodecanese
leave. In ancient times the port was called
Eteia and belonged to the city of Pressos
(Praisos), a settlement on the hills inland that
remained important from Minoan times to
the Hellenistic period. For many centuries Sitia remained one
Later the Romans were to occupy Sitia as of the most important fiefs of the aristocratic
an eastern Cretan outpost: the remains of families of the Venetian Republic. The
a large fish tank date back to this period, fortress (commonly known as Kazarma) was
whilst all traces of the earlier civilisations destroyed along with the rest of the city in
Clear, light waters
were destroyed by the continual incursions 1538 by the pirate Khaireddin Barbarossa,
and a wide horizon but immediately rebuilt by the Venetians,
characterize the of pirates and by the numerous earthquakes
bay of Sitia that have plagued the area. although it was then captured by the Turks
at the end of the eighteenth century. The
signs left by the devastation that Barbarossa
wreaked can still be seen in the little fire-
blackened church of the monastery of
Faneromeni, few kilometres distant from
Sitia, built above a gorge of white rock and
visible from the sea, therefore easy prey for
the foreign hordes who landed on the coast.
Before the ninth century an important
diocese was founded in Sitia, to then be
devastated shortly after by the Saracens.
For this reason it was decided to transfer
In the period between the end of Venetian A small hamlet
the bishopric to Episkopi, less exposed to was built near the
raids and pillaging. On the Byzantine ruins rule and the imminent occupation by the monastery of
the Genoese Enrico Pescatore built a fortress Turks, one of the island's most famous Faneromeni
which the Venetians took possession of in writers, Vincenzo Cornaro (or Vincente
1280, and which became, together with Kornaros), was born in Sitia, possibly of
Hania, Rethymnon and Heraklion, one of noble Venetian origins or a Cretan aristocrat
Crete's most powerful strongholds. who adopted an Italian name as was the
80 81

C H A P T E R 4
Archaeological Museum fashion at the time. His epic chivalric poem
of Sitia "Erotokritos" (he who is tormented by Eros)
The Minoan is composed of 1680 verses and tells, in
"prince" in gold flowery language, of the heroic battle
and ivory from
Palaekastro is one
between princes and warriors for the hand
of the most of the Princess Aretusa, who after terrible
precious finds to misadventures comes to marry the
have come out of
eastern Crete
protagonist Erotokritos. The romance unites
myth, legend, magic, passion, adventure,
proverbs and folk wisdom and today the old
folk still know the verses by heart, and sing
them as they did in the past. This engraving
With the Ottoman occupation the city from 1651 shows
fell into ruin until 1870, when an illuminated the town of Sitia at
the time of the
Turk, Avni Pasha, drew up the new city plan famous poet
and had it rebuilt, in spite of the outbreaks Vincenzo Cornaro,
of rebellion that hinted at the imminent author of the epic
"Erotokritos"
demise of the Sultans' dominion. Following
the liberation and independence of the
island, Sitia was gradually repopulated and
became the lively and beautiful town,
oriental in character, with narrow streets,
cafes, taverns and open-air markets, that it
is today. One should not miss out on a visit
to the Folklore Museum and above all the
Archaeological Museum which houses
important finds from the Minoan civilisation
- including many votive
offerings from the
The Museum's rich collection
nearby peak
includes pottery, clay figurines,
votive offerings, tablets with sanctuaries and a
Minoan inscriptions, tools, splendid Minoan
jewellery and fragments of
"prince" in gold and
murals
ivory found at
Palaekastro, along with
numerous daedalic
figurines in the
Egyptian style and
Daedalic figurines
objects from the Greek were very common
and Roman periods. in Doric time
82 83

A white-rock
gorge leads to a
stony beach and
the monastery of
Faneromeni, with
its dark
katholikon, the
monks' Byzantine
church with
beautiful icons
and fresco-
covered walls

C H A P T E R 4
Traces of the ancients
around Sitia
Anword "se-to-i-ja",athe mosttablet bears
inscription on Minoan
the ancient name
given to the city of Sitia, used right up to our
own times. Its precise location is not known,
but some scholars believe that it may have
The double axe
lain on the hill at Petras, where Minoan
symbol is found constructions with enormous blocks of
Hellenistic-Roman period. Continuing along
engraved on dressed stone have been discovered. Petras
stone and clay the road towards the east, after a few
is also cited by Plato in the Protagoras where
vessels kilometres one comes to Ayia Photia, one
wherever the he mentions it as the birthplace of Myson,
of the largest
Minoans one of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece. Sitia is surrounded
founded a Minoan
Other Minoan ruins have been found at the by Minoan
settlement necropolises settlements, rural
gates of Sitia, along the edge of the road
on the island, villas and
that leads towards the Libyan sea: they are cemeteries dating
with 252
the remains of a Minoan villa dating from from the Middle
tombs, some Minoan period to
1600 B.C. with a series of rooms arranged
cut into the the time when the
across terraces, two well - preserved Eteocretans took
rock, some in
stairways and a crypt. refuge in the
the form of mountain of
Again near Sitia, to be found on a hill
tholoi. Next to the necropolis, on the crest of eastern Crete
overlooking the sea is Tripytos, a large
a low hill, a large fortified Minoan villa from
settlement with houses, workshops and
the Middle Minoan period has been
storerooms built on the sandstone slope:
uncovered with 37 rooms and two circular
structures: even if the archaeological
remains are little but outlines, the place has
its own particular fascination, between the
blue of the sea and rocks overrun with a
blanket of succulents with bright purple
flowers.
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C H A P T E R 4
The Minoans from war and work
to religion
On the road thatthe coast ofSitiaLibyan
Even very small
settlements were
leads from to
built in the form of
Makryyialos along the miniature royal
Sea we come across a series of settlements palaces
and sanctuaries of the later generations of
Minoans and Eteocretans who, amid these
hills, sought refuge from the Dorian invaders
in around 1000 B.C.. These sites enable us to settlement of Ayios Georgios which, in its
better-understand three of the fundamental form and structure, is more like a miniature
aspects of Minoan culture: country life, town Gournia than a simple country house. The
life and the religious cults. entrance is marked by a steep staircase
formed of monolithic blocks which leads to
a myriad of small chambers with the massive
walls of a fortress. From the foot of the hill
the green countryside stretches out
immersed in absolute silence, and it is easy
to believe that the ancients who inhabited
this place loved to surround themselves
with beauty.
More imposing in appearance is
Pressos (Praisos), a Late Minoan city which
was active up until the Roman period, with
a triple acropolis built on a cone-shaped hill
entirely surrounded by fortified walls: from
Minoan country Near Zou, famous for its springs which
villas like that of
Zou were very
provided fresh water for all of the
important in the surrounding area as far as Sitia, a rural villa
Eteocretan period, has been discovered dating back to around
since they provided
the population's
1600 B.C., built of dressed stone on a very
sustenance steep slope on a sandy and fragile terrain
that threatens to crumble. The house is
afar the hill seems built up in a spiral, like
composed of various rooms, workshops and
old representations of the tower of Babel.
a kiln for ceramics, and a large number of
Pressos lies exactly halfway between the two
tools and agricultural instruments have been
coasts and was of strategic importance,
found there.
allowing control over the traffic of people
Travelling south one can make out a
and goods across a vast territory. In the
small sandstone ridge in the middle of a
Greek era it was the most powerful city-state
dense grove of olives: this is the Minoan
of eastern Crete, together with Itanos
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C H A P T E R 4
with which it was with whom they had commercial dealings,
linked by friendship, but, despite their repeated appeals for help,
and Hierapytna in 146 B.C. Ierapetra succeeded in destroying
(Ierapetra), the the city. In decline and no longer
The dominion eternal rival, independent, in 58 B.C. Pressos was
of the powerful especially as far as occupied by the Romans who partially
Pressos
extended over
the lucrative trade in rebuilt the city. However it had, lost all its
the whole purple dye which was power.
region of Sitia, extracted from a The Minoans and Eteocretans of these
and a treaty
was even made
particular species lands chose a "holy mountain" to take their
with the distant of mollusc which votive offerings to the gods. The most
Itanos in order abounded in the imposing of these peak sanctuaries is found
to avoid
surrender to
coastal waters was on the mountain of Prinias, which is very
the rival city of concerned. difficult to scale because defended by a very
Hierapytna Pressos venerated steep wall of jagged rocks on its western
Zeus Dikteo and face and by a
practiced a strange cult, that of the "sacred deep gorge on
pig", as a result of which the populace was the east. In the
forbidden to eat pork. Governed by a past shepherds,
democratic aristocracy, Pressos was an farmers and
extremely wealthy city that minted coins townsfolk
with the effigies of Apollo, Hercules, Zeus climbed as far as
and Demeter. In the buildings from the the summit
Greek/Hellenistic period, in the sanctuary carrying offerings At Prinias in
and in the tombs, precious finds have been of figurines and particular there
made: terracotta figures, painted lions, a large number of
objects in horned scarabs in
helmets, shields and pectorals in bronze and terracotta, bronze clay have been
two Athenian amphorae of the sixth century and gold which found, the rinoceros
B.C. which probably belonged to a local orytes commonly
were deposited in known as
Every Minoan
settlement had its
athlete who had won prizes at the a sacred enclosure or hidden in the cracks "rhinoceros scarab"
own mountain-top Panathenian Games. between the rocks. and believed, in the
sanctuary: When Ierapetra openly declared war on "household" cults,
The mountain-top sanctuaries were not to be talismanic.
the sanctuary of
Pressos lay on the
Pressos, the inhabitants turned for always situated on the highest mountain
peak of Prinias protection to the allied city of Itanos and peaks. Even low hills which were unusual in
also to Ptolemy Philimetor, ruler of Egypt form or simply emerged from flat terrain
could function as holy mountains for the
population: for example the little mount
Katrinia at Piskokephala, nowadays
cultivated with olive groves and vineyards,
and the low ridge of Alia, crowned with
a small white church between Sykia and
Papagianades, where many votive offerings
have been found (now exhibited in the
museums of Sitia and Ayios Nikolaos).
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C H A P T E R 4
The Venetian feudal
territories
As we wander Libyan sea, historythat lead
among the roads
from Sitia to the moves
forward in great bounds because in an area
of only a few kilometres we find ourselves
immersed in Minoan remains and then
immediately afterwards in the feudal
possessions of the Venetians.
Kato Episkopi is the village to which,
in the eleventh century, the bishopric of Sitia
was transferred to escape the devastations
wreaked by the Saracens. The three-naved beautiful panoramas, as far as the ruins of
church of the Ayioi Apostoloi with its cupola the castle which was once property of the
that recalls Islamic architecture, was noted Genoese and later recovered by the
by Venetian sources for a peculiarity: it had Venetians who called it Monforte. Climbing
to the crest one has a splendid view over the
easternmost part of Crete as far as the
Libyan sea. In the sixteenth century the
fortress was abandoned and fell into ruin for
lack of care. Later the site became a refuge
for the peoples persecuted by the Ottomans
and it is said that up to 3000 people could
take shelter within its walls.
To visit some of the most important
lands of the noble families of Venice one
must push on through narrow roads
between vineyards and orchards in the
direction of Ziros. One of the most
Under Venetian two altars, one dedicated to the Latin rite
rule Kato and fascinating sites is Etia, property of the
and one to the Greek, and often the liturgies
Epano Episkopi powerful Venetian De Mezzo family, who
were seats of of the respective priests were celebrated
built their residence here in the sixteenth
the Catholic simultaneously. Another beautiful old
bishopric, but in century, a large palace, well-conserved and
church, Panayia, is to be found at Epano
the churches restored, with two churches alongside it,
both Orthodox Episkopi and is worth a visit.
Ayia Ekaterina and Ayios Ioannis. Atop the
and Catholic A small sign indicates the road to Forte Castles, churches
rites were main door is the family crest of two and palaces testify
castle, which is recognisable from far off to the power of
celebrated mermaids, while inside it opens onto a large
thanks to its stern outline above a rocky spur Venetian rule which
hall with barrel-vaulting and a stairway lasted for over four
rising up in front of the Orno mountain
which once led to the now non-existent centuries
range. The road winds through cultivated
upper floor.
fields and sweet-scented meadows with
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Continuing on towards Armeni and
Handras (two agricultural villages famous
for their wine and the production of
The mansion house at sultanas, which are left to dry on great
Etia is one of the most sheets stretched out in the sun), one arrives
representative
examples of Venetian
at Voila, another important Venetian feudal
architecture in estate belonging to the Zeno family who,
eastern Crete. There following the Turkish conquest, converted
was originally a The fertile valley
second floor but the
to Islam: their sons became fanatical near Armeni e
building fell in at the janissaries, transforming the Italian surname Handras was once
beginning of the into Tzin-Ali. Of the Venetian/Turkish village Venetian territory,
nineteenth century but after the feud of
there remains the imposing tower of the Voila was ruled by a
palace/fortress with crests and relief Turkish-Venetian
sculptures carved on the entrances. janissary
The palace at Etia
with its two small
churches has
been carefully
restored and is
now listed as a
national
monument
Alongside the palace we can see the
ruins of the church of Ayios Panteleimonas
and some stone houses with blackened
ovens and fireplaces that attest to their
sporadic use by shepherds and local farmers.
Coming back down past scattered rocks and
boulders, one arrives at a beautiful fountain
in the Turkish style with an enclosed garden.
Overhead is the church of Ayios Georgios
which houses the tomb of the Cretan
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C H A P T E R 4
Returning towards Armeni, where on
the crest of the hill the blades of a wind farm
spin dizzyingly, on the plain below one can
make out the ruins of the monastery of Ayia
Sofia, of which there remain some Venetian-
era rooms surmounted by wide arches and
blocks from columns and capitals. Used for
Salomons, the family which a short time as a school during the Turkish
was to give Greece one of occupation, but ever since with neither
her famous theologians, students nor vocation, the grey stone
Jacopo, and the poet monastery has fallen into total abandon.
Diorisi.
Another village,
Katelionas (which would
be almost camouflaged Ruins and small
churches are
among the rocks were it reminders of the
not for two white churches past centuries,
that shine in the sunlight) contains traces often troubled and
rife with
of the Venetian presence of the sixteenth intolerance
century, when it was a large town with a
population of thousands. The Ottomans
forced the residents to convert to Islam or
risk expulsion. Katelionas slowly emptied Lifting one's eyes up from the
and was never repopulated. monastery to the high wall of rock that
faces onto a narrow gorge, one can see two
small cave churches dedicated to Ayio
Pneuma. Both little churches are modest,
dug into the rock, and their iconostases too
are simple screens between the altar and the
space reserved for the faithful, with a few
icons of the saints, but it is worthwhile
climbing up this far to sit on the stone
benches and meditate, on the beauty of
the nature here and of the sky amid the
great silence.
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C H A P T E R 4
In the silent villages in wonder at the rare visitors who come this
far. Yet more desolate is the old stone
hamlet on a ridge at the beginning of the
Perivolakia gorge, which descends between
great boulders and open tree trunks towards
Kapsa Monastery on the southern coast. The
site has the rough beauty of a fortified
village and it is with amazement that one
notices that behind those impenetrable
T o better understand the spirit of this
walls some homes have been rebuilt with
tiny gardens in which there grow almonds
region we would suggest a visit to the and pomegranates.
villages that tourism has forgotten, like
Perivolakia and Drongari, set into a
landscape both wild and sensual and
approachable via a narrow path along the
gorge that lies halfway down the slope
beneath the little churches of Ayio Pneuma.
Time seems to stop Where the gorge ends one encounters a
in the archaic and
unsullied landscape
small plateau with thistles and thorny
around Perivolakia bushes amid farmhouses, all deserted, save
one which appears to be inhabited by Continuing along a dirt road in the
someone fairly eccentric who has decorated direction of Apidia one can visit the ruins
the house with odds and ends that vary from of the medieval village of Drongari, which Great silence and
the scent of wild
old pieces of iron to ox-horns and empty tin emerges amid hay fields and olive trees with flowers are this
cans. The place is called Epano Perivolakia its grey stones that once formed homes, spot's only riches
and was abandoned after a terrible shops, stables and storehouses. Over the last
earthquake. few years it has all but completely fallen in,
Further down, settled among the olive but one can still make out arched doorways
trees, Kato Perivolakia appears, a group of and rooms with stairs, niches and stone
low white houses with flat roofs and seats. On the platform that marks the
terracotta chimney pots. In Venetian times it entrance to the ruins, a bare white church
was a rich agricultural village, but now the has been erected with a wooden iconostasis
life in its streets seems to have stopped still with brightly-coloured paintings.
and the few remaining inhabitants gaze
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C H A P T E R 4
Along the coast of
the Libyan sea
Back on town of Lithines comes into sea,
the main road leading to the
the white view,
and merits a stop: it is a lively and well-kept
place with restored houses, flower-filled
gardens and labyrinthine streets. The site
was know as far back as pre-Hellenistic
times, but acquired real importance only in
From outside the the Byzantine and Venetian eras when it
church seems
took the name of the aristocratic Lithini
rather poor, but
inside it boasts family who, in 1591, built the church of Ayios
surprisingly Athanasios in the town square. Here was
beautiful frescoes
buried the Venetian patrician Gerolamo
and holy icons
Vlasto, fighter for the freedom of Crete and
refined man of letters. Of the small castle
which was once to be found in the middle
of the village there remain only a few
fragments of reliefs which are now
incorporated into the church.
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C H A P T E R 4
Mysteriously dark, the church of
Panayia Hodegetria ("the Virgin who shows
the true path") is entirely frescoed.
Blackened with smoke from the candles, it
houses a precious icon of the Madonna from
the fourteenth century:
from the image there
hang hundreds of silver
ex votos - eyes, hands,
feet, figures of men, The Roman villa dates back to the first The ancient
women and children settlements, villas
century A.D. and has a regular plan with a and monasteries
invoking mercy - held by central courtyard surrounded by many were rarely built on
fine chains so that they rooms including small baths and a semi- exposed stretches
form a wide, tiered skirt of coast because
circular pool - possibly a fish pond. Judging the population
of metal right down to from the precious pavement mosaics and feared foreign
the floor. the fragments of marble that decorated the invaders coming
The third church of Lithines is dedicated from the sea
walls, this was a luxury abode.
to the Ayia Triada and to Ayios Haralambos. The large Minoan villa belongs to the
It has two apses and dates back to 1886. Its Second Palace period, it has a surrounding
beautiful portals with relief sculptures were wall and is divided into numerous rooms
probably salvaged from an older Venetian with traces of cobbled flooring. The villa had
building. strong links with the religious cults of the
The Venetian Minoans because inside there have been
style of found stone altars, a chamber for ritual
architecture
and decoration
banquets and a magnificent seal on which
continued to be there is inscribed a ship with a sanctuary
adopted by floating on the waves, symbol of the sea
local craftsmen
even after
gods.
Venetian rule Turning instead towards the line of
ended coast that leads eastwards, we encounter
the fifteenth-century monastery of Kapsa,
clinging to the high rocks and dedicated to
St John the Baptist. In the mid 1800s the
monastery became the property of the
adventurer Yerontoyiannis, a decidedly
controversial character: repenting of a life
After Lithines the road drops steeply of dissolution he became a monk, dedicating
towards the Libyan sea where we find the himself to the poor, healing the sick and
coastal village of Makryyialos with a small working miracles. Ever since Yerontoyiannis
fishing port. Two ancient constructions have has been venerated as a saint and every 29th
been found here, a Roman villa facing the August a great feast is dedicated to him at
sea and a Minoan villa on a flat area of land the monastery.
higher up, both hidden among the modern
houses.
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C H A P T E R 4
The island of Koufonissi:
Zeus, an aqueduct and the remains of a
a very special outing Roman villa with columns of porphyry and
mosaic floors all attest to the wealth of the
I n the summer when the sea is calm, a
past. Koufonissi was inhabited up until the
Byzantine era, as is demonstrated by the
passenger ferry sets out from the port of
walls beside the sea. Sailing around the
Makryyialos for the uninhabited island of
island, one notes graffiti on the rocks
Koufonissi (the ancient Lefki). White
representing sailing-ships, smaller boats and
beaches, crystalline, turquoise waters and
holy images: they were scratched there by
Murex shells are ancient remains make this island an
still to be found the shipwrecked and by sailors and pirates
uncontaminated little paradise, and
on the sandy whom the wind had driven onto the rocks.
beaches of the exploring it on foot leaves one feeling as free
island of as the birds that wheel between its sea and
Koufonissi
the sky. Koufonissi has not always been so
silent: in the Graeco-Roman period the
island had a flourishing industry producing
the red-purple dye that is extracted from the
muscles of the murex shellfish that are to be
caught in the surrounding sea, a dye which
was sold on at great price. The inhabitants of
Koufonissi had commercial dealings with the
city states of Hierapytna, Itanos and Pressos
and also with Athens and Rome where use
of the colour purple was reserved for the
clothing of the aristocracy.
A twelve-tiered Roman theatre of the
fourth century A.D., a temple dedicated to
104 105

107

CHAPTER 5
PLACES OF WORSHIP
UNDER A VAST SKY
PEAK SANCTUARIES
MONI TOPLOU
ITANOS
PALAEKASTRO
KARYDI
ZAKROS
ETIA
AMBELOS

C H A P T E R 5
Mountain-top sanctuaries
In the easternmost part of Crete we find
the traces of one of the most important and
mysterious religious manifestations of the
Minoan Civilization: the rites of worship that
took place on the mountain peaks. The peak
sanctuaries originated in the Middle
Minoan period, around 2000 B.C., and
remained functional up to the time of the
Eteocretans. According to the Greek
archaeologist Costis Davaras, in the area
between Itanos and Goudouras alone there
are concentrated a full nine sacred
mountains, the best-known of which are
Petsofas and Modi above Palaekastro,
Traostalos and Vigla on the road to Zakros,
Kalamaki near Itanos, and Prinias and
Piskokephalo which are found just outside
Sitia.
Our knowledge of The traveller notes nothing in
Minoan religion is
still very limited.
particular, if not the mountain peaks with
The finds from irregular rock formations which contrast
peak-sanctuaries, with the surrounding landscape and catch
caves, domestic
shrines and tombs
the eye: a conical summit, jagged boulders,
seem to indicate rings of rock or majestic ridges. Many of
that the natural these sanctuaries did not even have a sacred
world played an
important part in
enclosure (only on the mountain of Petsofas
magical do the walls of a temenos remain), and for
ceremonies this reason scholars believe that the devout
made their way to the mountain tops simply
to pray close to the sky, where the gods
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C H A P T E R 5
Which deities were
worshipped at the
peak sanctuaries is
still unknown, but
sacred figures -
especially female -
are often
identifiable
engraved on seals
The peak or painted on
sanctuary on
could more easily manifest themselves. The
pottery and clay
Mount Petsofas mountain belonged to the gods, and to sarcophagi
is one of the few indicate the sacredness of the place was
sacred sites
with remains of
unnecessary.
a shrine The Minoans brought precious
offerings to the gods - objects in gold, ivory For the Minoans nature was sacred and
and bronze, or spontaneous gifts modelled had no need of manipulation. Many plant
in clay: domestic animals such as goats, symbols appear on their seals and in their
oxen, bulls and sheep, but also birds, snakes, painting: olive trees, fig trees, palms, oaks,
tortoises and insects and many figurines, pillars
both male and female, in the gesture of crowned with
worship with both arms raised above the treetops,
head or with a closed fist held to the flowers, fruit
forehead. They invoked the benevolence and scattered
of the gods, for a good year, for an abundant leaves, and
A quantity of harvest or for the healing of their physical water was Figurines in the
clay scarabs ills: many feet, hands, arms, legs and little shape of bulls were
present too: a symbol of
have been heads have been found in the crevasses
found at the the waves of strength,
peak sanctuary between the rocks, along with miniature the sea on independence and
of Prinias vases and objects of domestic and fertility
which there
agricultural use. sailed the
boats with
their sacrificial The reconstruc-
altars. tion of the peak
Many of the sanctuary of
Petsofas
discoveries made relating to these peak includes a fairly
sanctuaries are owed to the French scholar, large temenos
and tireless traveller, Paul Faure who, in the built into the
rocks
mid twentieth century scoured the
Votive mountains and grottos of Crete on foot in
offerings were search of the traces of the civilian and
hidden in
fissures and
religious life of the Minoans. Many
cracks in the archaeologists have used Faure's travel
rocks notes and books as the basis of in-depth
studies of the sites that he indicated.
112 113

At the Museum of Archaeologists
Ayios Nikolaos all have also found
sorts of votive bronze figurines
offerings from the and animals and
peak sanctuaries objects in gold.
are on show: small The peak
clay animals, sanctuaries first
pottery, and legs appear in the
and arms, used to Middle Minoan
ask the gods for period and some
good health or a remained in use up
rich harvest until the Late
Minoan period
The small clay The female
figurines - both figurines have
male and female - elaborate
are in the typical hairstyles and
worshiping pose wide skirts, while
of the Minoans the male figures
wear only the
sacred knot and
a dagger

C H A P T E R 5
Inside the monastery the monks have
Travelling towards the
organised an interesting museum with
“deserted city” antique engravings, illuminated
manuscripts, historical documents and holy
F rom Sitia the road continues along the
icons, an outstanding example of which is
the work painted by the eighteenth-century
coast towards the easternmost point of
artist Ioannis Kornaros when he was only The monastery's
Crete in a harsh, bare landscape, its few trees museum has a rich
twenty-five years old. The icon is inspired by
bent by the wind which blows angrily here. collection of
the psalm "Lord, thou art great", and ancient documents
In the midst of this wild nature there rises
represents 61 biblical scenes (in particular, and icons: the most
the fortress-like monastery of Toplou, which famous is the
the creation) with hundreds of figures in the
takes its name from the Turkish word top, painting by Ioannis
style of the miniaturists. Kornaros
cannon, because the Venetians had
equipped the complex with a powerful
artillery. Dedicated to the Panayia Akrotiriani
("the Virgin of the ridge"), the monastery was
founded in the fourteenth century by the
noble Venetian Cornaro family, but thanks
to armed conflicts and earthquakes, Toplou
Monastery has been damaged and rebuilt
many times.
Toplou
Monastery is one
of the most
important
monasteries on
Crete, erected in
the middle of a
fertile plateau
The monastery of Toplou also posses-
halfway to ses a precious stone tablet with Greek
Palaekastro. In inscriptions dating from 146 B.C., this is the
the past the
monastery held
treaty between the city states of Itanos and
land from Capo Hierapytna concerning the ownership of
Sideros all the and trading rights regarding the purple dye
way to the south
coast - mainly
that was produced on the island of
received as gifts Koufonissi. The arbitrator in this dispute was
from the rich and the governor of the Roman city of Magnesia
devoted families
of Sitia
in Asia Minor where an identical copy of the
ancient treaty has been found. The
inscription was discovered in 1834 at Itanos The inscription on
by the British diplomat and traveller Robert the stone tablet
tells of the treaty
Pashley, who brought it to Toplou where it made between the
was reused as an altar table and later walled city states of Itanos
into the facade of the chapel. and Hierapytna in
the year 146 B.C.
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C H A P T E R 5
The landscape appears increasingly
parched and desolate as we continue along
the road towards the bay of Grandes,
passing semi-abandoned farmhouses, great
swathes of shrubs toughened by the sun
and the sea salt, enclosed pastures for the
herds of long-haired goats, and fields
cultivated with melons, grapes and bananas
which belong to the monastic community
of Toplou. On a promontory overhanging
the sea one can make out the ruins of
ancient Itanos, later called Erimoupolis,
the deserted city. Legend tells that
Itanos belonged to the Kouretes, the young
warriors who danced and beat their arms
hard on their shields to cover the noise of
the whimpering baby Zeus, born in the
grotto of Mount Dikti (or perhaps on Mount
Ida).
The ruins of
Itanos - later
called
Erimoupolis, the
deserted city -
are spread wide
over the coastal
area, with traces
of Minoan,
Hellenistic and
Roman
constructions
and also early
Christian
remains
Inhabited by the Minoans and later
becoming a Phoenician trading post, Itanos
was considered one of the most powerful
city states of the Graeco-Roman era, it held
the right to mint coins and controlled the
maritime trade between the Orient, Egypt
and the Mediterranean. The only dangerous
rival was Hierapytna which had
demonstrated its bellicose intentions in
destroying the city-state of Pressos, ally of
Itanos. The relationship with Egypt was so
strong that in the third century B.C. the
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C H A P T E R 5
populace could request the help of Ptolemy
Philadelphos to bring down the aristocratic
government that oppressed them.
In the ninth century the city, already badly
damaged by an
earthquake, was razed to
the ground by pirates and,
after some attempts at
rebuilding it, was
definitively abandoned in
the fifteenth century,
becoming the "deserted
city". At Itanos we can see
the ruins of each of the
city's periods of glory - the
walls of the Greek houses,
The Christian the Hellenistic fortifications, the Roman
basilica has storerooms dug into the rock, the necropolis
fallen into ruin, and the remains of a three-naved early
but contains the
columns of the Christian basilica constructed with materials
central nave, salvaged from the older buildings.
salvaged from
Roman and
Greek buildings
A stone's throw from Itanos, the famous
sandy beach of Vai stretches out in the
shade of a vast palm grove. Legend has it
that it was the Saracens who brought the
palm to this area: pitching their tents near
the shoreline and living off dates, the dense
palm grove is thought to have grown from
the date-pits that they dropped there.
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C H A P T E R 5
crumbled and the few survivors withdrew
Palaekastro and the to the promontory of Kastri overlooking
mountain villages the bay.
The immense(wherethe bay of the
arc of The city came to life again during the
Late Minoan period, and was still inhabited
The peak
sanctuaries of
Kouremenos nowadays Petsofas and Modi,
students of a windsurfing school whisk past) in the Greek era when a great sanctuary with their stark
was inhabited by an important Minoan dedicated to Zeus was erected at some time conical profiles,
were sacred to the
community right from the dawn of that during the eighth to sixth centuries B.C.
ancient population
civilization. Among the olive groves of When the archaeologists of the British school of Palaekastro and
Palaekastro, in the area known as in Athens arrived, the temple appeared to were places of
worship up until
Roussolakos at the foot of Mount Petsofas have been completely demolished, and yet
Overlooking a the Roman period
natural harbour (which watched over one of the most among its ruins it concealed some important
near the bay of
frequented peak sanctuaries of ancient archaeological remains including a frieze
Kouremenos, in representing a chariot, and a terracotta lion,
the Middle times) a vast rosy-stoned Minoan settlement
Minoan period has been
there flourished
brought
a town today
called back to
Roussolakos - the light. The
red hole -
real name Every afternoon
because of the
area's purple soil of this city the fishing boats
is not leave the small
harbour of
known, but Palaekastro
we do
know that later on the Greeks were to call it
Heleia for its marshy terrain. Rectangular in
plan with paved streets, steps and a dense but above all here there was discovered a
weave of houses built one up against the stele carved with the famous "Hymn to Zeus
other to form small districts, the city enjoyed Kouros", to Zeus the youth, the perfect image
great prestige in the Middle Minoan period. of the idealized hero, sung by the Kouretes
Following the natural disaster of around and by the men who worshipped the "divine
1450 B.C. which destroyed all the palaces Zeus, native of Crete".
and cities of Crete, Palaekastro also
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C H A P T E R 5
Turning right just before the entrance
to the modern village of Palaekastro, one
can follow a dirt road which leads right to the
base of the sacred mountain of Modi, the
conical outline of which stands out against
the sky from a long way off. To reach the
summit, where the Minoans worshipped the
gods of nature, and from which one enjoys
a magnificent view over the whole of the
eastern coast, one must pick one's way
through rocks and brushwood, ideally
following the winding goat tracks.
From the sacred
mountain of Modi a
dirt track leads to
small villages now
partly abandoned,
but with
interesting
traditional houses
The route continues past a forest
formed by the mills of a wind-farm and
groups of houses with modest gardens that
are swept by the perennial winds, as far as
Mitato and Vrysidi, two tiny hamlets with
few inhabitants. The soil takes on a rosy hue
as the path reaches Karydi with its low,
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C H A P T E R 5
square houses (most of which are no longer
inhabited) with doors and windows that bang
with every gust of the wind - the only master
in this ancient village. In the bare hills
surrounding Karydi the deep grotto of
Peristeria is to be found, opening its
immense
crater-like
mouth
amid the
A deep, dark thistles. At
hole marks the
entrance to the
this point
large grotto of the
Peristeria landscape
situated
between Karydi
becomes
and Adravasti almost
lunar,
among
pointed rocks that take on the form of
animals or little stone monsters curled up
between the bushes: venturing on foot over
the uneven terrain, clambering over the
ridges of the hills and looking down towards
the dark precipices, the silence of this land
becomes almost unbearable.
Turning back towards Karydi and
following the road to Ziros, the snow-white The area around
village of Sitanos awaits us, built on the Sitanos and
Armeni is
slope of hill with labyrinthine alleyways and famous for its
flat roofs on which onions, figs and pulses grapes and good
are laid out to dry in the sun. Underground wine
The white watercourses have rendered this strip of land
village of
Sitanos more fertile and the landscape is softer here
among vast fields, vineyards and isolated
cypresses.
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Zakros and the Valley out before an eternally calm sea sheltered
of the Dead by the cliffs on either side.
Behind a little cemetery with a small
white church that is level with the village of
Azokeramos, the climb towards the Minoan
peak sanctuary of Traostalos begins. The
path of pink soil contrasts with the dark
green bushes of thyme and sage, with their
scented flowers that feed the bees whose
honey has an intense and aromatic flavour.
At the summit a group of lighter-coloured
rocks marks out a natural sacred enclosure,
From the top of
the sacred peak
As indicates the road for Zakros, one of the
one leaves the village of Palaekastro a and the terrain is scattered with tiny
fragments of terracotta, chippings from the
of Traostalos sign
you can see the great Minoan palaces of Crete. The land votive offerings of the Minoans.
grottoes that between the two mountain chains that flank
mark the
entrance to the the valley is fertile and is cultivated by the
Hochlakies farmers who live in the small traditional
gorge villages of the area. Just past the houses of
Hochlakies a narrow gorge begins: the way
is almost blocked by
gigantic boulders
and a dense
vegetation, but at
the end it opens
suddenly onto a
great marshy
meadow with beds
of reeds which are
used for making Once past the modern village of Zakros,
matting and baskets. a small clearing marks the beginning of the
Further on, a lonely descent towards a deep gorge that runs out
beach of round into the creek of Kato Zakros where
pebbles stretches the Minoan palace lies. Following
the twisted path of the gorge past
stones, pools of water and oleander
bushes, on the rock walls one notes
numerous caves cut into the stone:
these are Minoan graves, rock
tombs that have given the gorge
its name of "Valley of Death".
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C H A P T E R 5
The asphalted road
drops rapidly down towards
the bay of Kato Zakros, with
the treasury, the megaron of the king and
fishing boats at anchor along
the megaron of the queen, and an immense
the shore and a row of
archive-room in which hundreds of tablets
taverns that offer fresh fish.
inscribed with the Linear A script were found,
The ancient palace of Zakros,
still preserved in their boxes. In the various
with its city that extends
rooms more than two-hundred vases were
across terracing on the hill
discovered including real masterpieces
above, dates back to the
Second Palace period from
1600 to 1500 B.C. and was
discovered by chance in 1901
by the British archaeologist
David Hogarth, while intense
excavation was begun in
1962 by Nikolaos Platon.
Zakros's ancient masters lived
opulently thanks to the
flourishing maritime trade such as a rhyton in rock crystal, as well as
The gorge known
as the Valley of
that arrived from Egypt, Syria, Cyprus and innumerable objects in bronze (axes, swords, The Minoan
Death descends Asia Minor. Even though it was the smallest knives, hammers and various forms of vessel), palace and town
from the stoney of Crete's four Minoan palaces, the Zakros of Zakros
heights of Kato
a very beautiful bull's head and many objects possessed one
Zakros as far as the
residence had around 200 rooms, with in ivory, faience and gold. of Crete's most
Minoan palace by banqueting halls, purificatory baths, shrines, important
the sea harbours and
became the
main gateway
for trade with
the Orient
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C H A P T E R 5
The coast of the wild lilies Following the shoreline, one notes
a solitary small, white church built over
an ancient Minoan settlement called
Ambelos. Reoccupied in the Hellenistic
period, it was later conquered by the
Romans. The cut of the stones has nothing
of the monumental to it, but it is nonetheless
interesting to observe the remains of the
ancient site which probably belonged to
the kings of Zakros. Ambelos had a peak
sanctuary of its own on the promontory that
looks out over the two little islands in the
middle of the sea known as Kavali.
The coast near
Ambelos gives a
Just after the villageremains of aaMinoan
of Zakros, turning
good idea of what
the island must
have been like in
beside the roadside
ancient times
country villa indicates the way to
Xerokampos on the coast of the Libyan sea.
Amid olive groves, winding gorges and high
mountains, at last the coast comes into view,
little-inhabited and with wide beaches of Leaving
sand and pebbles. Immediately to the right Ambelos
The rough and just before arriving at the village of behind us, The sea cliffs have
stony land of Xerokampos, one finds a small sandy bay been eroded by
easternmost Crete the landscape
with emerald-green water and one of the water, wind and
is still untouched becomes ever- salt which have
by the modern most beautiful beaches on Crete: right up to wilder and sculpted strange
construction the water's edge there grow snow-white lilies images into the
industry and mass more arid
and rare succulents that come into flower rock
tourism while the sea
under the baking midsummer sun. glitters in the
sunlight, inviting one to take continual dips
in its refreshing waters. We would
recommend a walk up to the far promontory
of Xerokampos which offers a magnificent
view over the entire coast as far as Koufonissi.
In one wall of rock the wind and the saltwater
have carved a giant face with a wide-open
mouth: it could easily be the face of the
gorgon Medusa,
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C H A P T E R 5
sculpted by nature, ready to defend the
island. Nothing could be better than the
dizzying climb along the snaking road that
leads towards the few houses of the
traditional hamlet of Hametoulo and,
eventually, to Ziros, with its breathtaking
panorama, for taking our leave of eastern
Crete; wild, mysterious, secretive, austere
and at the
same time
warm and
hospitable,
rich in
magnificent
monuments
and jealous
of her many
hidden
beauties.
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Chronology
7000 B.C. Stone Age, arrival of the first settlers
6500-2800 B.C. Neolithic Age and the beginning of the
Bronze Age
2800-2100 B.C. Arrival of the Minoans, pre-Palace period
2100-2000 B.C. Beginning of the First Palace period
2000-1700 B.C. Palace civilization, construction of the First
Palaces
1700 B.C. Destruction of the First Palaces by an
earthquake
1650-1500 B.C. Construction of the Second Palaces,
Second Palace period
1500-1450 B.C. Eruption of the volcano Thera and destruction
of the Second Palaces
1450-1200 B.C. Beginning of the post-Palace period,
arrival of the Mycenaeans
1200-1100 B.C. Beginning of the Iron Age
1100-900 B.C. Invasion of the Dorians
900-69 B.C. Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic
periods. Creation of the city states, extensive
trade with the Near East and Egypt.
69 B.C.-330 A.D. Roman conquest and the beginning
of the Early Christian period
330-830 A.D. First Byzantine period
830-961 A.D. Invasion of the Arabs
961-1204 A.D. Second Byzantine period
1204-1669 A.D. Venetian dominion and the first stirrings
of Cretan resistance
1669-1898 A.D. Turkish occupation and very active
Cretan resistance
1898-1912 A.D. Liberation from Turkish occupation and
creation of the Autonomous Cretan State
under the protection of the European powers
1913 A.D. Official union of Crete with Greece
141
140

Glossary
Acropolis - ancient citadel
TEXT
Ashlar-work - square-hewn stone masonry or facing JUDITH LANGE
Ayios -Ayia ‘saint’ or ‘holy’
PHOTOGRAPHS
Eteocretan - 'true Cretan', the last of the Minoan peoples
JUDITH LANGE - MARIA STEFOSSI
in eastern Crete
Dromos - 'street', the unroofed passage leading DESIGN - LAYOUT
into a tholos tomb MARIA STEFOSSI
Hestiatorion - banqueting chamber in ancient buildings ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Iconostasis - screen between the altar and the nave JULIA MACGIBBON
of the (Orthodox) church
PROOFREADING
Kafeneion - coffeehouse
JOHN O’ SHEA
Kastro - castle or fortified area
Katholikon - church or chapel within a monastery COLOR SEPARATION - PRINTING - BINDING
BIBLIOSYNERGATIKI S.A.
Kernos - vessel used for religious rituals
Janissaries - young Ottoman soldiers, guards selected
from Christian families and forced to
convert to Islam
Megaron - the great hall of Minoan and Mycenaean
palaces
Mitate - small stone house
Paleos - 'old'
Panayia - the Virgin Mary
Peak sanctuary - ancient mountain-top shrine
Pithos - large storage jar
Polis - town
Prytaneion - council chamber
Raki - strong alcoholic drink produced on Crete
Rhyton - drinking horn, often in the form of an
animal-head
Spiti - house
Temenos - sacred precinct
Tholos - conical or beehive-shaped tomb
The authors
Judith Lange is a journalist, photographer and painter,
Maria Stefossi is a photographer, graphic artist and editor.
Both are great travellers. They have published numerous books together,
among the most recent of which are: Ancient Theatres, Ancient Stadia, Crete,
Mani, Drama and Humble Beauty.
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