Sights - Chania Prefecture

Theriso

 

The historic village of Theriso, 15 km south of Chania, is a popular destination for excursions. The village is situated at a height of 500 m, encircled by rounded mountains at the foot of Lefka Ori whose naked tops contrast sharply with the dense vegetation of the place.

 

 
The name (originally Therisos) is of pre-Greek origin which testifies to the age of the village, but in historical times, the village was mentioned for the first time in "Descrittione dell' isola di Creta" (1577) by Francesco Barozzi.
 

 

 

 The road from Chania winds through the 6 km long and impressive Therisiano gorge, and in several places you drive between vertical cliffs which at times actually project over the road.

 
The gorge is partially formed by the river Kladissos which especially in spring when the snow melts, changes into a torrent stream.


Two kilometres before Theriso, a flight of steps to the right of the road leads up to the 20 m deep Sarakina cave, where the archaeologist Paul Faure in the 1950'ies found potsherds from Neolithic, late Minoan and pre-Geometric time.
      View from
  the Sarakina cave

 
The strategic location of the village has often given it a place in history. During the great rebellion in 1821, the inhabitants and the partisans, under the leadership of Vasilis Chalis and Andreas Fasoulis, managed to put to flight 5.000 Turks at Kambia, at the entrance of the gorge. The women of the village helped to bring water and ammunition. According to tradition, a girl by the name of Andiánira from Theriso, was shot at, while she was carrying water for the rebels in a bucket on her head. The bucket was broken and she was slightly wounded, but her only worry was the lost water.

 
When pasha Mustafa Naili (Giritlis) in 1886 burnt down the village, many of the inhabitants fled to Kythira and Peloponnese, among them Styliani Ploumidaki and her only two-year-old son who was later to be one of Greece's greatest politicians (Eleftherios Venizelos).

 
The following year, the Cretan rebels managed to isolate and wipe out two companies of Turkish soldiers near Theriso. In revenge, Mustafa Naili killed the young girl Chrysi Tsepeti by rolling a mill wheel over her. The wheel is now set up in the middle of the village in front of a collection of war materials from World War II.


But Theriso became best known in 1905 when Eleftherios Venizelos had his base there during the rebellion against high commissioner Prince George.

 
The high commissioner and Venizelos were in total disagreement - to say the least of it - about how Crete was going to achieve unification with Greece, which resulted in the high commissioner's removal of Venizelos as minister of justice. In 1905, after some years of controversies, Venizelos assembled revolutionaries from the whole of Crete in Theriso where they proclaimed unification with Greece and became the direct cause for George's resignation as high commissioner. In the middle of the village is now established a Venizelos-museum with photographs, documents and other evidence of the Theriso rebellion.


Opposite the old Agios Giorgios and Charalambos church from 1555 is the oldest café of the village, still attended to by the old couple Maria and Artemis Papadakis.
During one of my visits, the 92-year-old Artemis told me about life in the old days and during the Theriso rebellion. Click on the photo to the right to read his story.

The road continues from Theriso over the mountains to the villages of Zourva and Meskla. During the drive, there is a formidable view over the valley down towards the north coast and Chania, while a vertical rock wall towers proudly to the left of the road.

 

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