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Crete, host
of the 2002 World Youth Chess Championships is the largest and southernmost
of the 10,000 or so Greek islands. The island offers visitors a unique
combination of snow-capped mountains and the clearest of waters on the
Aegean Sea to the north and the Libyan Sea to the south.
Heraklio is Greece’s fifth largest city and the capital of Crete, situated
about halfway along the northern coast of the island. Today it is a bustling
urban centre, but in the past the region produced one of the most important
civilisations of the world: the Minoan Civilisation.
According to Diodoros, Crete
was the daughter of a Curete. Ammon, who came to Idaia from Libya, married her and named the island for
her. Heraklio was named after the legendary hero Heracles (Hercules)
who landed there when he came to Crete to capture a wild bull and thus
fulfill the seventh of his Twelve Labours. King Minos had refused to sacrifice the wild white
bull to Poseidon and the god caused queen Paciphae to conceive a lustful
passion for the animal, by whom she bore the Minotaur, a monster with the
head of a bull and the body of a man. By order of the king, the Minotaur was
confined in the Labyrinth. When the son of king Minos was killed by king
Aegeus of Athens, he forced athenians to sacrifice 7 girls and 7 boys to
Minotaur annually. Finally Theseus joined the victims, killed the beast and
escaped with the help of Ariadne, the king's daughter.
When British Archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans first uncovered the ancient site
of Knossos (five kilometers southeast of the Heraklio)
in 1900, the world was shocked to discover that at the time of the Pharoes
in Egypt an equally important civilisation to that of the Egyptians existed
on Crete. The oldest structures of the incredible Palace of Knossos, capital
of the Minoan Civilisation, date from 1900 BC, but most of what is evident
today, after the excavations, was built about 200 years later. The ancient
site is visited nowadays by thousands of tourists each year and is
considered the major highlight of any visit to the island of Crete. Many
important findings of the Minoan Civilisation are housed in the exceptional
Archaeological Museum of Heraklio.
The Minoan Civilisation came to an abrupt end in 1450 BC. Some
archaeologists believe the cause to have been the eruption of a volcano on
the nearby island of Thera (Santorini) and the earthquakes and tidal waves
that ensued.
The area that today is occupied by the modern city was once the port of
Knossos. Heraklio was named Chandax during the Byzantine era and Candia when
the Venetians occupied and fortified the city. It took the Turks all of 22
years—the longest siege in the history of Europe—to finally penetrate the
Venetian defenses in 1669 and take over the whole of the island. Turkish
rule ended in 1898, when British troops stormed Heraklio.
Heraklio was built by the Arab Saracens in 824 A.D. At the time it was
called Chandax, a name adapted from the Arab word “kandak” that means moat,
due to the moat that the Saracens dug all around the city. Heraklio was
built on the location where the old harbor of Knossos (Anissos) used to
stand. The name survived during the second Byzantine period as Chandax, and
during the Venetian occupation as Candia. In fact, during the Venetian
occupation, the whole island was named Candia after the city.
The Saracens occupation lasted 140 years (824-961 A.D.). During that time
Chandax was the safe harbor of the pirates that ravaged and looted the
eastern Mediterranean. Immeasurable wealth was concentrated in Chandax, loot
from the islands sacked and ships sunk by the pirates.
The Byzantines tried quite a few times to liberate Chandax, with Nikiforos
Fokas finally succeeding in 961 A.D. after a long and bloody siege that
lasted almost a year. The fort and the walls surrounding the city were
totally demolished, and the city burned down. Most of the Saracens were
slaughtered, with the rest of them taken prisoners to Konstantinoupolis. All
the valuable possessions of the Saracens were also taken to
Konstantinoupolis. According to the historians of the era it took 300 ships
to move all that to the capital of Byzantium. Some of these treasures
survived through the ages and are on display on the monastery of Megistis
Layras at Mount Athos.
The sack of Chandax by the Byzantines marks the beginning of the second
Byzantine era which lasted until 1204. At that time Alexios the 4th heir to
the emperor of Byzantium Isaakios the 2nd, who was dethroned by his brother
Alexios the 3rd, asked the Pope to help him get back his throne. He was
referred to the Crusaders who at that time were starting the Fourth Crusade,
and agreed to give Crete to them once they reestablished him to the throne
of Byzantium. Eventually, the Venetians were established in Chandax in 1210.
They rebuilt the walls of the fort in order to protect themselves from the
rebellions of the locals, the most important being that of the Kallergis in
1367.
Although the locals hated the Venetians, and the whole of the island
suffered under their yoke, Chandax became probably the most important
cultural center in the East Mediterranean during the Renaissance. Many
Cretans studied in the island and abroad in Italy, and became famous (the
painter El Greco, Dominicos
Theotokopoulos, who was born in Fodele-Heraklio
being the best known). Chandax was a shining light that kept hellenism alive
during these dark times.
After the crashing of the revolution in 1367 the danger from the Cretans has
passed. But a new enemy was rising across the sea, the Turks. So in 1462 the
rulers of the city decided to rebuild and strengthen the walls again. The
new wall was designed by one of the most famous military engineers of
Venice, Michele Sammicheli. The construction lasted 100 years. This huge
project was funded by extra taxation of the Cretan people, and carried out
by the locals who were practically conscripted to work on it. Every Cretan
from 14 to 60 years old was forced to work a week every year on the
construction.
These walls are tremendous. At some points they are 60 meters thick. Their
perimeter is 4.5 km and there are 12 bastions and forts all around. The best
known is the Martinengo Bastion, where currently the grave of the great
Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis is located. And yet, for all their size and
splendor, these walls fell. The Turks managed to occupy Chandax in 1669,
after a siege that lasted 22 years! But the cost in human life was
appalling. After these 22 years 30.000 Christians and 120.000 Turks were
dead.
The Turks occupied Crete until 1897. During that time numerous rebellions by
the Cretans were crashed. On August 25, 1897 Cretans were slaughtered on the
main road to the harbor from the city. This road is still named after the
event, 25th of August Street. After that, and following negotiations with
the Ottomans, Crete was granted autonomy. During these negotiations, the
political star of a great statesman appeared that influenced politics not
only for Crete and Greece, but also for the whole of Balkans,
Eleftherios
Venizelos.
Crete was an independent state from 1897 to 1913. During that time the
longing of the Cretans to unite with their brothers in Greece remained.
Venizelos became the Prime Minister of Greece in 1909 and continued his
efforts to unite Crete with Greece. Eventually, and as a result of the
Balkan Wars of 1912-13, he succeeded. |
