Apokoronas
In the northeastward of the prefecture of Chania, visitor meets one of the five boroughs of the prefecture, the borough of Apokoronas. Apokoronas has an extend of 313 sq kilometers (98 flat, 103 semi mountainous, 112 mountainous) and it is constituted by 5 municipalities. The province of Apokoronas numbers 34 traditional villages and 14.697 residents (inventory 2021)
Morphology
The geographic location of Apokoronas could be characterized as very important cause it constitutes as the “bridge ” of Chania with the rest of Crete’s prefectures.
It’s bigger department is found covered by wild as much as meek vegetation and is stretched out from the foothill of White mountains up until the gulf of Souda northwesterly and the gulf of Georgioupolis northeasterly.
Apokoronas has two capes, one of Souda and one of Drapanos, five rivers (Koiliaris, Xydias, Vrissanos or Mpoutakas, Almiros, Delfinas) and a single lake (the lake of Kournas) which is also the unique in Crete.
Visitor
The province of Apokoronas could be characterized as ideal for the visitor who wishes to combine on his vacation, tours so much on the mountains as much on seaside. A unique experience which Crete offers in a harmonious way.
Visitor
The province of Apokoronas could be characterized as ideal for the visitor who wishes to combine on his vacation, tours so much on the mountains as much on seaside. A unique experience which Crete offers in a harmonious way.
In abrupt cliffs, visitor meets small picturesque villages, which impress with their authentic traditional color and elect Crete’s soul greatness while coastal touristic villages with organized beaches will offer the comforts of modern age.
Important Gorges, like the ones of Diktamos (begins from Katoxori Keramion and leads up at Stilos), the one of saint nikolas-kanali (between ramnis and maxairon) and the one of Asi gonias, they generously offer the natural beauty of Crete.
Caverns (213 have been recorded) with historical and environmental value, steep beaches, Byzantine churches, are found there in order to satisfy taste and requirements of all tourists, who are sure that they will leave this place with a sweet recollection and a promise that they will return as soon as possible.
History
In the antiquity, the word Apokoronas is not reported at all apart from the names of the cities within the province. In Byzantine times there is talk of the name of the region as a place. As a borough is being referred at the era of Crete’s Venice domination, without though knowing the limits of the province at that time. Several toponymies have been referred such as: “Apikonna”, Bicorna and Bicorno. The name “Hippokoronion” from Cornelius took place for the venetian fortress Bicorna that was found at the coastal hill, easterly from Kalives. It’s also credited that the name was emanated from the words “apo” and “korona”, because the province was a meticulous possession of the crown from Byzantine emperors.
There are elements, which prove that in Apokoronas, had human presence, since the Neolithic age, namely 8-6.000 years B.C. Archeological relic have been found at Apokoronas and in between and also in Samonas and Stilos that a settlement of the same period have been found. Beneath Aptera Minoan burials with many vessels also have been excavated, near Stilos, a magnificent vaulted burial, the ruins of a ceramic kiln and several different relic of the same period and other appreciable discoveries also take place.
Kalives
Kalives is a tourist coastal village (4,5 kilometers from Almyrida) with beautiful sandy beaches.
The village is found in the eastern utmost of the gulf of Souda and right opposite of the Cape. he ruins of a Venice castle are found which is named Mpikorno/Apikorno or Ipokoroneio.
For the name of the village “Kalives” the different opinions diverge. Some consider that farmers or grazers used to build huts (Gr: Kalives) in order to take care of their land and others that Arabs gave this particular name.
The village is surrounded by extents of olive groves and vines, while three rivers cross within. (Ksidas, Koiliaris and Mesopotamos). Xydas springs from the White Mountains and hosts trout and ducks.
We recommend you drink a coffee under the big plane tree in the village’s square or visit the Watermill of Kalyves, which is a monument of the area, right next to it. Don’t miss to walk through the picturesque alleys of the village to enjoy the nature trail between Kalyves and Stylos in the “Platanakia” location.
The route next to the river of Koiliaris – the second flowing river in Crete – will reveal to you a paradise of this blessed area! Along the river and up to the village of Stylos you will enjoy the dense vegetation, a restored water mill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-VZ_Ad8iuE)
as well as water channels, small bridges and places specially designed with benches to rest.
Stylos
The village of Apokoronas with the springs will fascinate you with its green landscape and its gargling and excellent quality water which is bottled. As you enter the village of Stylos, on your right is the Byzantine church of Agios Ioannis (1271-80) with frescoes. The area is rich in historical monuments such as:
- The Late Minoan Tomb of Stylos
- Agios Ioannis Theologos church
In the large square with the centuries-old plane trees next to the springs, you will relax and taste the traditional Cretan cuisine.
Nio Horio
Nio Horio has a large flatland with olive groves, orange trees, tangerine trees and various other trees and is known for:
- Koule Ottoman Fortress.
The fort built in 1867 very quickly. Its position was strategic because it was a passage to Vrysses, Rethymno and further east. It supervised the area of Kampos – Stylos – Kalyves, the villages of Riza and the communication of Apokoronas with Kerameia via Ramnis and Samonas. It is believed that there was a Venetian tower in this area.
Plaka
Traditional village only 1,5 kilometers away from Almirida, with an old well-subsisted settlement, graphic alleys, rocky beaches, and marine caves with infinity beauty. It is worth noting that there are 215 caves in the area. The village has been loved in recent years especially by visitors, especially English, who recognized the beauty of the place, built villas and now live in the area as permanent residents. There are excellent taverns with traditional flavors in the village square.
Kokkino Horio
Leaving Plaka you will meet an equally beautiful village, Kokkino Horio. Through the village, a narrow road starts which heads towards the edge of Cape Drapanos. After 800 m, on the left there is a juction that leads to Koutalas beach. The beach is not organized, it is relatively unknown and accepts few visitors, mainly because of its rocky deep sea. However, it has crystal clear and shallow waters and there is a sandy beach to spread out your towel. There is no signpost, so the safest way to get there is by asking a local.
Don’t forget to take a walk to the lighthouse at the edge of the cape, which was built in 1864.
Kokkino Horio is also known for its caves some of which are easy to visit in conjunction with your swimming. The most famous attraction is the underwater “Cave of Elephants” which is an excellent diving destination.
Look for the Diving center in Almirida and enjoy a unique experience. On diving tours, divers can admire an impressive natural scenery with reddish and white stalagmites and stalactites. The “Elephants’ Cave” is a refuge for the Mediterranean seal Monachous monachous, which is the rarest seal species in the world and one of the six most endangered species on our planet. Finally, in the Kokkino Horio you will find traditional taverns and cafes in addition a glass factory with handmade works of art. The monument of the village calls “Galaria” (exterior space).
Kefalas
On your way to Kefalas, do not miss to visit Ombrosgialos.
Obrosgialos is a gorgeous coastline which deserves your visit for swimming in its clear blue waters. Besides of its rich traditional architecture, Kefalas haw a view from the east which reaches as far as Rethymnon. The village owes its name to “kefalades” byzantine colonists whom Alexandros Komninos had sent over to Crete in 1182. In Kefalas area look for the forest of Roupakias and enjoy a circular route easy for the whole family.
Roupakias is located between the villages of Kefala, Souri, Sellia and Xirosterni, and offers the possibility for long tours through the forest. In the forest you can find cypresses, oaks, pine trees, scattered carobs, quinces, plane trees, wild olives and many other trees. However, apart from the wild flora, Roupakias has always hosted crops as well. In the past, many inhabitants of the area had vines, while even today you can observe fields with olive trees or even sorrel.
The tour is made even more interesting by following some of the old cobblestone paths that people used decades ago to move around and carry things on their donkeys.
Vamos
Only 7 kilometers away from Almyrida, visitor meets a traditional village which impresses with its natural beauty and its hospitable residents.
Old traditional buildings with gardens, traditional cafes and narrow passages compose the village’s history of many centuries which takes us back to time when Arab pirates used to live there. Unconfirmed origins conjecture that I must’ve first inhabited by Saracen pirates, during the 8th century a.C. during the Turkish domination an administrative centre coexisted and in 1863 Pasha Sava designated it as the capital of Sfakia prefecture.
People with a patriotic morality, the residents of Vamos emerged for their national-deliverance battles, especially on the glorious battles of 1896 which Vamos redeemed from the Turks. It is worthy of note that the years that Vamos was a capital of Sfakia, faced a particular rice on the line of a special model of growth. Since that age, urban style luxury houses with neoclassic dual differentiate. However on the architecture that took place, up until the mid of the 19th century, the debilitation of the Venice domination took a determinative role. Since that age the discrimination of luxury or not houses began, an incident which also portrays the economic stratification of the place, intensely declaring the conflict between affluent who lived in posts and indigents who lived in a more secular home type known as “kamarospito”.
Places that you shouldn’t miss are the old school (build in 1863) as well as the churches of St. Nicolas & St. George.
On the outskirts of Vamos two Venice villages exists: Karidi kartsomado and Karidi of St. George,where you will espy the ruins Virgin Mary monastery filled with mosaics, as well as the monastery of St. George’s which still operates and is one of the most important architectural monuments of the prefecture of Chania. It is mentioned for the first time in 1600, while it began to flourish when it obtained an oil mill license in 1829.
Twelve impressive stone arches harmoniously consolidated on the formerly buildings, they constituted an enormous olive press. It was depopulated in the beginning of 1900 and reestablished recently with a successful up until now attempt to reconstruct and be eminence again.
Gavalochori
Gavalochori it’s a traditional village which is found at the centre of Apokoronas, 4 km away from Almyrida. Took it’s name, from the lordly Byzantine family of Gavaladon from the lot which the village took place, when Crete halved out to the 12 young nobleman of the Byzantine at 1182. In a distance of 500m from the village, many of the Gavalian wells which being saved are there. (Venetians Wells)
The village has a historical and folklore museum which you have to visit. The building that accommodates the museum constitutes a characteristic sample of the local traditional architecture. On the historical part of the museum weapons, swords, paintings, historical lithography and coins (Roman, Byzantine, Venice and ottoman) are being saved. A feminine cooperative of weavers and embroideries also operates where the visitor can buy handmade work of art and textiles, known as kopanelia.
Douliana
It is worth visiting this beautiful village whose houses have mostly been restored. It has beautiful taverns and a cafe that reminds of these good old days. From its center there is an easy, signposted path that will pleasantly surprise you.
Armenoi
Village established on a verdurous landscape filled with planes and amply fountains. Where a huge part of the borough gets watered. Armenoi stands 7 kilometers from Almyrida and worth’s your visit in order to dine in one of the taverns underneath the planes which number centuries of life.
Look for the cafe-restaurant that exists in the village in a wonderful green landscape that is crossed by the river and gives a harmony of senses. The village was firstly abided from the Armenians right after the 9th century who were ministering the army of Nikiforos.
Vrises
Vrises stands on the way to Sfakia and was developed after 1925.
It is crossed by the Vrysanos River and east of Vrysa, at the uneven intersection of the national road with the bypass, is the Hellenic Kamara, a Greco-Roman bridge (300 BC to 300 AD. Legends associated with the Greek There are many arches. According to a legend (narrated by Mr. Painesakis, Vafes), the key to the arch was placed by a man alone, the “Greek Markos”. In earlier times, too, when there was no over-pumping of water and in the “Arch” there was a pigeon, there were legends that on New Year’s Eve, the waters would open and fairies would emerge from underground crystal palaces.These legends have disappeared nowadays along with the waters.
Vafes
Vafes is the only village in the prefecture of Chania that has been declared since 1997 by the Ministry of Culture as a preserved monument due to its important magnificent architecture and history Walkig through the alleys of the small village of Vafe, one can see the remnants of its Venetian past, old, restored mansions, dilapidated garrets and roofed alleys.
We do not have an exact picture of how the village got its name since many theories have been formulated. Others say that in 900 AD Vaphes extended to the river Vapheus (dyed) and was therefore named so. But such a river has not been recorded anywhere to justify the name. A second version states that because this village was stained with blood in every revolution that took place, under the Venetians and Turks, it got its current name. A third version relates the name of the village to an old inhabitant, who was called Vafeos.
Just outside the village there is the historical cave of Krionerida https://www.e-storieskritis.gr/2018/09/blog-post_17.html where the inhabitants of the village met a tragic death during the Turkish occupation, as well as the labyrinthine and highly impressive Kalamato cave. https://www.e-storieskritis.gr/2018/10/blog-post_5.html
The main church of the village, the Holy Apostles and the Transfiguration, built in 1883, with two impressive “starry” domes.
Emprosneros
Picturesque village being surrounded from an acorns wood. At the edge of the village stands the demodernized tower of Alidakis, a great janissary, who his tower was burned down by sfakians in 1774.
In the same village you will admire the theater of Kremastos and two churches inside the rock.
Patima & Filaki
Prettily surrounded villages are Kastelos, Patima and Filaki where an where there is an impressive tomb from Minoan era with a long aisle and a square chamber, build with colossal stones and a pyramidal roof exists.
Koyrnas
Semi mountainous village on the foot of white mountains with a magnificent homonymic lake, Crete’s unique fresh water lake being surrounded by mountainous volumes.
It’s water which changes color during the day according the sun, whatever appertains the lakes depth it still remains a mystery even though divers have tried to detect it.
Either if you visit the lake for a meal or drink at the different taverns that exist, or because you love nature, you will definitely fined the beauty of this pastoral landscape. The ancient name of the lake was Korisia and it’s said that there also existed a homonymous city, the City Korion with the sanctum of Goddess Athena. Visit the Church of Agios Georgios which is a monument for the village. Look through the village for the route of the Strata of Azilaka (the Black Forest, as old people called it) and you will be surprised by the diversity of the landscape within a few kilometers, a unique feature of Cretan nature!
More Information
For visitors who like to walk, they can collect additional information about Apokoronas villages and historical monuments from internet.
For example:
https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%94%CE%AE%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%82_%CE%91%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF%81%CF%8E%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%85
https://www.facebook.com/dimos.apokoronou
https://apokoronas.gov.gr/
www.cretanbeaches.com
Some of the important monuments of the villages of Apokoronas that were not mentioned above but are worth visiting are:
- The Minoan palace of Samona
- The Church of Agios Nikolaos in Kyriakosellia
- The Venetian Wells in Palailoni
- The Church of Agios Nikolaos in Maza
- The Church of Panagia in Alikabos
- The National Resistance Headquarters in Asi Gonia.
Also worth checking out:
Aptera
Beyond the limits of Apokoronas but only 7.5 kilometers from Almyrida on the way to Chania, the visitor meets Aptera which have a bird’s eye view of the gulf of Souda, that it shouldn’t be missed.
Aptera were founded the 7 century BC, they were inhabited until the Byzantine years while they’re constituted as one of the more important cities of ancient Crete. They repeatedly played a decisive role in history of the island as well as in its internal and external policy.
The name was emanated from the king – founder Apterous as a motive of the fight that took place between the monsoons and Sirens, where the Sirens conquered and their feathers flew away, than they became apterai and leykai, fall in the sea and thus the islands Leykai were created on the gulf of Souda.
At Aptera the visitor can see the walls of the ancient city that are still extanded in a length of roughly four kilometers, a small temple from the beginnings of the 1st century BC (probably dedicated to Goddess Dimitra), a small Roman theatre with cornices carved on rock, and the huge impressive vaulted reservoirs from the period of Roman domination. There also exists the Monastery of Saint John the theologian. Southernly from the abbey flooring from a Christian temple of the 7th or the 8th century a.C has been revealed and underneath it, Christian graves.
Aptera was autonomous through the whole Greek period (6th-4th century B.C) και and a lot of coins have been monetized. Has also send help to the Spartans at the 2nd Messenian war (668 B.C) while it was an ally of Knossos during the civilian Cretan war. (220 B.C)
Near the antiquities two fortresses of exceptional historical interest that were manufactured during the period of Ottoman domination are being saved, the fortress of Palaiokastro which have been build from Ottomans for causation of the insurgence of 1866 which constitutes a representative sample of frourian architectural of the 19th century, as well as the Idzedin fortress at Kalami which was buid at 1872 from Reouf pasha. The Idzetin fortress constituted as the Mainer defensive work of the harbor, while at the later years was used mainly as a political detainee’s prison who with their resistance fought for their democratic ideas.
