Sights - Lassithi Prefecture

Etia

 

On the main road Sitia-Ierapetra, a road branches off towards Etia immediately after Papagiannades.

 

 

In Etia are the ruins of a large Venetian estate, built late in the 15th century by Pietro De Mezzo from one of the most powerful Venetian-Cretan families of that time. The family possessed, as the Kornaros family, large amounts of land both around Sitia and other places in Crete. The two families were connected through marriage, as Ioannis De Mezzos' daughter, Zambia, was the mother of Vincentzos Kornaros, the author of the great and famous medieval poem Erotokritos.

 
The estate consisted of a main building with storerooms. The main building had three storeys and stood intact until 1828. But after the rebellion in 1828, where the local Turkish commander surrendered after the message of his countrymen's death in the nearby village of Lithines, the locals tore off the roof construction in order to use the wood for their own houses. In 1897 also parts of the masonry were removed.
There are still remains
of the third floor in this
c. 70 years old photo by Rousetos Panagiotakis.

 
Even though the building has been greatly damaged, it is still considered to be one of the most characteristic examples of Venetian architecture in Crete, and it was therefore preserved and partly renovated in the 1990ies.

 
Shortly after the Turkish capture of Crete in 1669, the area was placed under the local Turkish officials, which is also indicated in the name of the estate, as it was called "The Seraglio".

 

Above the entrance door is the De Mezzo family's coat of arms. 

 

 

 

 Through the main entrance you enter the hall (A), from where a staircase leads up to the second floor, but for security reasons it is now closed off. To the left of the hallway is a lengthy hall (B) that may have functioned as a dining hall. At the end is a little closed room (C), used possibly as a storeroom.

 
At the other end of the hallway is a room (D) with a high-located window. The hallway also has access to the backmost rooms of the building. First you reach a lengthy room (E) with four arches in the ceiling. From here is a door to two smaller rooms (F and G). Behind room G is another little room (H), projecting from the actual building. Because this little room is quite isolated and in only one storey, it is thought to have served as a prison.

 
       

 

 
Southeast of the main building are the foundations of a row of storehouses, and at the entrance to the yard is the big well, which according to the text of the built-in plaque, was constructed in 1701 by bishop Meletios, who's name in civil life was Theodoros Trivizas.

 

 
Outside the actual estate are the ruins of the many workshops and workmen's houses. This "village" was so big that it in the talk of the town was called "Ekato Portes" (= 100 doors). And it was big, because in 1583 it had 564 registered inhabitants. In 1881 the number had decreased into 18 Christian and 94 Turkish inhabitants, and when the Turks had left the area, only 8 Christian inhabitants were registered in the census in 1900.

 

 

 

 

 
Facing the road to Armeni are two churches, which as "The Seraglio", were renovated in the middle of the 1990ies.

 
First the whitewashed two-nave church dedicated to the birth of Virgin Mary and St Ekaterina.

   A little further on, is the yellowish church dedicated to St John the Theologian.

 

 

 

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