Palekastro - the village
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Willkommen - Bienvenu - Welcome |
Palekastro stands on historical soil. Already at Minoan times
the region was a centre of trade. The port of Itanos
which is today several meters under the water line shows an impressive
certification.
And the very extensive Minoan commercial settlement
Roussolakkos close to the Chiona
beach, excavated by English archaeologists, proves
that the region
was obviously one of the most important commercial centres of
the Minoan culture in the extreme east of the island of Crete.
Life in Palekastro today
The village remains exempted from the mass tourism. Still the
main business of the app. 1100 inhabitants is agriculture. They
cultivate olives and wine, there a still a few fisherman. Commercial
fishing however is hard these days due to the substantial over
fishing of the Mediterranean Sea.
Those who are faced with unemployment or got nothing else to do
usually open a "Mini-Market".
There are several in that small village and I always wonder how
people manage to live with that small income. "It works,
more or less", they say. Tourism is supplementary income
and it probably will remain.
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Sunrise Palekastro
© M. Tsantakis |
The flat hill "Kastris"
At the east edge of the village visible from far away there's
the flat hill called "Kastri(s)". This mountain gave
Palekastro its name in the middle ages when the region was dominated
by the sovereign power of Venice. On the flat summit they had
established a fortress. In the course of the centuries the stones
were cleared away and used by the people of the region to build
houses. Take a walk up there (app. 30 minutes from Chiona
or Kouremenos) and enjoy a unique
view over the village, the beaches and the mountains. Best time:
early morning or late afternoon.
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View to Chiona from
"The Kastris'' |
Ancient site Roussolakkos
Roussolakkos is the only Minoan city to have survived
intact. Its harbor, outlying settlements, sanctuaries, and quarries
preserved under sediments accumulating over more than 2,000
years. It was here, the ancient authors tell us, that Diktaian
Zeus (the youthful Cretan equivalent of the classical Greek
god Dionysos) was born and here where the young god founded
his holy city. It was also here that Jason and the Argonauts
confronted Talos, the man of bronze, a generation before the
Trojan War.
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Ancient houses Roussolakkos |
Bronze age settlement
The earliest written records documenting the worship of Diktaian
Zeus at Palaikastro come from the Mycenaean Greek archives at
Knossos and date to the close of the Cretan Bronze Age (ca. 1300
b.c.), however, sacred art and architecture dating from all periods
has been found, suggesting that the site was hallowed throughout
its occupation history. Among the most beautiful artifacts attesting
the worship of Diktaian Zeus is a unique gold and ivory statuette
of the god made ca. 1500 b.c. See this and more stuff at the museum
in Sitia.
Endangered Site
While the ravages of later periods and recent tourism development
have obscured similar sites elsewhere in Crete, so far they
have spared Roussolakkos, which covers some 30 hectares. Today,
however, a private developer has been granted permission to
build a large tourist complex at Cape Plako, an area which includes
the Minoan quarries and outlying sites. An access road to reach
the resort area is planned through the ancient city. In addition
to development pressures, Palaikastro's harbor and coastal buildings
are also threatened by a rise in sea level due to local tectonic
activity.
(By World
Monuments Fund)
More on this site:
[British
School at Athens]
[Athens
news, published 2000]
[Athens
News, "What Cretan tephra hides", August 2003]
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