Gavdos
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Gavdos municipality Δήμος Γαύδου |
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| Basic data | |||
| State : |
 Greece
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| Region : | Crete | ||
| Regional District : | Chania | ||
| Geographic coordinates : | 34 ° 50 ′ N , 24 ° 5 ′ E | ||
| Area : | 33.025 km² | ||
| Residents : | 152 (2011) | ||
| Population density : | 4.6 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Post Code: | 73001 | ||
| Prefix: | (+30) 28230 | ||
| Seat: | Kastri | ||
| LAU-1 code no .: | 7403 | ||
| Districts : | no | ||
| Local self-government : | no | ||
| Location in the Crete region | |||
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Gavdos ( Greek Γαύδος ( f. Sg. )) Is a Greek island and municipality (Δήμος, Dimos ) in the Cretan regional district of Chania , the former prefecture of Chania, and is geographically the southernmost point of Europe . The island municipality has 152 inhabitants (according to the 2011 census), making it the smallest municipality in Greece. The administrative seat is the place Kastri.
geography
Geographical location
The island of Gavdos is located 34.9 km south of Crete in the Libyan Sea and is geographically the southernmost island in Europe. Together with its uninhabited smaller sister island Gavdopoula , it forms the southernmost Greek community. The closest distance to the North African coast is 260 kilometers. The Canary Islands or the French overseas departments are, like Cape Gata on Cyprus , further south, but are only considered part of Europe politically, not geographically or in terms of plate tectonics . The island measures 9.48 kilometers in northwest-southeast extension and 5.45 kilometers in width. Their area is around 33 square kilometers. The highest point on Gavdos reaches a height of 368 meters.
Places of the island community
Kastri
Kastri ( Καστρί ), the main town on the island, has less than 40 inhabitants. There is a post office, a medical station, an elementary school and the administrative office of the municipality of Gavdos . Kastri lies at an altitude of 220 meters. An asphalt road connects the village with the port of Karave and Sarakiniko .
Sarakiniko
Sarakiniko ( Σαρακινικό ) is actually not an original village, but a recently loosely built beach. It is still the best known location on the island. Most of the taverns and bars are located here, there is a grocery store and telephone, and even a car and scooter rental. The name of the beach is probably derived from the Greek σαρακηνικός (Saracen) and refers to a former settlement by Saracens or the use of the bay as an anchorage by them. The gently sloping bay is bordered by a wide strip of dunes, which is mainly overgrown with juniper trees and thyme bushes in a growth form adapted to the sandy bottom.
Ambelos
Ambelos ( Άμπελος ) is located in the west of the island at an altitude of 300 meters and is the highest settlement on the island.
Vatsiana
The place Vatsiana ( Βατσιανά ) in the southeastern part of the island had 31 inhabitants in 2011, in 1950 there were 100. The priest of the island community runs a folklore museum there , in addition to a small kafenio , in which he shows the past of everyday life on the island with objects and documents . The approximately four kilometer long gravel road that leads to Cape Trypiti ( Ακρωτήρι Τρυπητής ), the southernmost point of Europe, begins in Vatsiana . Its proximity to the cape makes Vatsiana the southernmost town in Europe.
Metochi
(gr. Μετόχι)
Natural space
Flora and vegetation
Among the 457 fern and seed plants identified so far on Gavdos is a species found in North Africa (beautiful water star Callitriche pulchra ), which forms an outpost on the north side of the Mediterranean Sea on Gavdos alone (there are also other species both on Gavdos and on the other offshore islands to the south) and an endemic species, the inconspicuous Gavdos rabbit's ear ( Bupleurum gaudianum ) , which grows to about 10 centimeters .
Compared with other Greek islands or with large parts of Crete, Gavdos appears extremely green, the island is largely forested. The Calabrian pine ( Pinus brutia ) predominates , alongside Phoenician juniper ( Juniperus phoenicea ) and mostly near the coast, sometimes also in the interior of the island, large-fruited juniper ( Juniperus macrocarpa ). This species, also known as sea juniper , forms impressive tree shapes up to twelve meters high on the island. It is also found scattered near the coast on Crete, but remains shrub-shaped there. Only on the island of Chrysi do similar tree-shaped specimens occur in larger stocks. The tree-covered sand dunes are a fascinating sight. The southernmost tree in Europe near Cape Trypiti also belongs to this species.
The noticeably strong tree growth has only developed in the last 150 years and forms a secondary forest . Witnesses in the 19th century describe Gavdos as extremely bare with only a few trees. Almost all of Gavdos is terraced, a sign that the soil was cultivated in times of increased settlement. The head thyme ( Thymbra capitata ), which is typical of the Eastern Mediterranean Phrygana, grows on the sandy beaches in a growth form that is adapted to the sand drifts with significantly longer branches.
fauna
Six species of reptiles have been identified on Gavdos. Among them are the two types of Gecko Caucasian semi-finger ( Hemidactylus turcicus ) and cyrtopodion kotschyi ( Mediodactylus kotschyi kalypsae ), the latter being the most common reptile the island represents. Turtles are represented by the West Caspian tortoise ( Mauremys rivulata ) and the Moorish tortoise ( Testudo graeca ) and snakes with the species European cat snake ( Telescopus fallax pallidus ) and Balkan angry snake ( Hierophis gemonensis ). The former occurs only in Crete and the islands south of it. The lack of lizards is unusual .
climate
The climate on Gavdos is distinctly Mediterranean / maritime . The winters are milder and drier than on Crete, the amount of rain is smaller, but the summer heat waves are less pronounced.
history
prehistory
Archaeological investigations since 1990 have shown that settlement of the island began much earlier than assumed. As a hand ax that was discovered near Sarakiniko (site 64A) shows, the artifacts date back around 200,000 to 120,000 years. Other finds, such as the cleaver from Kavos Tsargoulio (site 27), support the assumption of this early settlement. The most important site is Ayios Pavlos-Fetifes (site 26E), probably a site where tools were regularly made. The oldest Paleolithic artifacts are the tees and cores there .
Also in Ayios Pavlos, but also in Vatsiana and Kavos, the much more common artefacts of the Middle Paleolithic , here the early phase (120,000 to 75,000 years ago), can be found. They have a yellowish-white patina. In addition to the local flint , it could also be from Crete. The later artifacts are no longer made of gray chert , like the old Paleolithic , but also of black flint. They are assigned to a Moustérien industry, between 75,000 and 50,000 before today, and have a white patina. In Ayios Pavlos, 34 of the 57 finds were made of quartz .
There are significantly fewer finds from the Upper Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic - thus from the epoch of our immediate ancestors. Only a single scraper or tee can be assigned to the Aurignacien . Back knives from Gravettia can only be documented by a few specimens, as in Kavos or Kefala. The same applies to pieces from the Epigravettia . Some artifacts from Ayios Pavlos are around 14,000 to 10,000 years old, and they are still made of black flint. The local microliths, which were also found in Siopata-Metochi, are dated to the 11th millennium. Tools with signs of certain striking techniques also indicate this dating. The only evidence of a settlement in the Mesolithic is an arrowhead from the 8th / 7th. Millennium BC Chr.
Minoans, the mythical Ogygia, Gortyn
Gavdos could have been integrated into the distribution system of goods and services that characterized the so-called "palace economy" of Bronze Age Crete, the Minoan culture . Some important goods came from the island, such as sea salt, perhaps wood, ore containing metal, and certain types of stone sought for building houses and temples (p. 97).
According to a popular belief, Gavdos is said to have been the island of Ogygia , where the nymph Calypso kept Homeric Odysseus for seven years. Callimachos began as early as the 4th century BC. BC Ogygia is the same as the island of Gaudo. However, doubts have arisen as to whether Callimachus actually meant Gavdos or the island of Gozo near Malta . The widespread myth is still reflected today in the naming of taverns and accommodations, which is almost exclusively derived from this episode of Homeric poetry.
With Gortyn in central southern Crete there existed (according to an inscription published by Federico Halbherr in 1897) at the end of the 3rd / beginning of the 2nd century BC. A contractual agreement, according to which taxes of the islanders on trade goods for Apollon Pythios were due. The residents retained their political freedom, but in foreign policy they tied themselves to Gortyn, to whom they had to give arms aid on reciprocity. They also supplied the island's most important products, namely salt and juniper berries . In 1899 Gaetano De Sanctis examined the island for the first time from the perspective of archeology, a second investigation was carried out on the initiative of Halbherr with the support of De Sanctis from August 13th to 19th, 1925 by Doro Levi and Antonio Maria Collini. Her travel notebooks (taccuini) were not published until 1997 (pp. 351–373). In addition to numerous archaeological references and the first photographs of the island, they also provide rare insights into the life of the 45 families on the island in the early 20th century. This is especially true of Collini's notes. The two fortifications discovered, necropolises (Lavrakàs, Kaporì, Sellakia), other inscriptions, e.g. from the Hellenistic period. At Cape Chora in the north-east they also discovered the remains of a Venetian fortress wall (p. 376).
Roman Empire, Byzantium, Islamic Crete
Gavdos was also important for the Roman Empire . At that time, the vegetation of the island, then called Clauda , was over-exploited, which set in motion a karstification process that continues to this day. Before Gavdos, the apostle Paul is said to have almost been shipwrecked on his trip to Rome. The little church of Agios Pavlos near the beach of Agios Ioannis reminds of this . The Saracens also interfered in the fate of the island in the early Middle Ages, the name of the beach Sarakiniko suggests a Saracen refuge.
During the Byzantine Empire (900 to 1000) the island had over 8000 inhabitants and had three bishops and one archbishop . The Venetians followed from 1207 to 1665. At that time, but also later, the island was called Gozzo or Gozzo di Candia .
Venice (approx. 1204 / 11–1665)
According to a document from 1252, Gavdos belonged to the Canea (Chania) area, which was divided into 90 feudal estates, 75 of which were to be reserved for the settlers who Venice settled there, while 15 were directly under the Republic of Venice. These goods also included Gavdos and its small neighboring island. But in the 14th century it became more and more difficult to defend Gavdos and the Venetian feudal lords there against increasing piracy, so that the island, like many other islands in the eastern Mediterranean, was placed under the direct protection of the state. In the case of Gavdos, this happened no later than 1337. At the end of the 14th century, the island was still uninhabited.
Ottomans (1665–1898)
The Turkish rule over Gavdos was a consequence of the long siege and the eventual conquest of Crete. It lasted from 1665 to 1898. In addition to Gavdos, the Italian name “Gozzo” appears for the island. There was a lighthouse on the island. During this period the population fell to around 500 inhabitants in 1882. According to a British study, allegedly, according to a British study, the poverty around 1910 was reflected in the fact that the men on the island were only 1,634 m tall, while the Sphakiots on Crete were 1,711 m measured. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (1890, 1898) records about 70 families on the island. Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt gives a somewhat more detailed description in his Travels and Researches in Crete of 1865. He writes that the 70 or so families were divided into three or four "hamlets" and individual farms, the land belonging to Sfakioten from Crete (p. 275). In doing so, he creates typical causal relationships for this time under the verdict of economic and racist assumptions, if he believes: "They are primitive in their habits and ideas, and moreover are without enterprise and energy, a mixed and degenerate race" (p. 276) . And so he interprets the residents' naked swimming over to his ship as analogous to the behavior of the "uncivilized natives of the Pacific islands". In the far north-west he identified “Hellenic remains”, from where he appropriated a colossal female statue, albeit a headless, which he claims to have later given to the British Museum (p. 276 f.). He thought the city was small, especially since no coins had survived. According to "Dr Cramer (vol. Iii, p. 376)" there was a diocese there in the Middle Ages.
Greek island of exile, German occupation (from 1898)
Together with Crete, Gavdos also came to Greece. In the 1930s (under the Metaxas dictatorship ) numerous communists were exiled to the island, at times more than 250 people were housed on Gavdos, including leading figures of the Greek communist movement such as Markos Vafiadis and Aris Velouchiotis .
During the Second World War , Gavdos and Crete were occupied by German troops, the old lighthouse near Ambelos was bombed by Stukas in 1941 (and completely rebuilt in the early 2010s). Because of the steep coast it was the highest lighthouse in the eastern Mediterranean and an important reference point for British ships and submarines , which supported the Cretan resistance from the south and supplied them with weapons.
Rural exodus (from the 1950s)
The rural exodus, which only began in other parts of Greece in the 1960s, began on Gavdos as early as the 1950s: Gavdiotes exchanged their land ownership on their island for former Turkish ones on Crete after it was nationalized there. In this way, communities of former Gavdiotes - Gavdiotika - emerged in Crete, for example in the Gavdos district in Paleochora . The flocks of sheep on Gavdos often belong to owners on Crete, especially from Sfakia, who also graze their flocks on Crete's coastal plains.
Surname
Gavdos came to be known by various other names. For example, the Gávdhos appears in the biblical story of the Apostle Paul's Journey to Rome as Klauda , or Cauda (Καῦδα). The island was also described as a Cauda by Roman geographer Pomponius Mela and as Gaudos by Pliny . Ptolemy spoke of Claudos (Κλαῦδος). The island was also known as Gozzo . The Venetians named the island Gotzo , perhaps in imitation of the Maltese island of Gozo . From the 17th to the 19th centuries, the island was known as the Gondzo . The Turkish name of Godzo was Bougadoz .
politics
In 1996 Gavdos briefly entered the political discussion at European level when a representative of Turkey at NATO in Brussels questioned Greece's sovereignty over the island. This has to be seen in connection with publications by the Turkish Military Academy, in which the status of almost 100 Greek islands is questioned (including important ones such as Kalymnos ). However, most of these islands are close to mainland Turkey. The background to the conflict is the different views of the two countries on how the continental shelf or continental shelf should be determined in the area of Greece.
Economy and Infrastructure
Population and institutions
Gavdos has about 50 year-round residents (as of Sept. 2006), according to the 2011 census, however, 95 people are registered on Gavdos with main residence and entered in the electoral roll.
In the island's main town, Kastri, there is a doctor's station and an elementary school, which - according to local residents - was attended by three children in the summer of 2006. A doctor is sent to the island by the Greek state. In an emergency, he can request a helicopter. The administrative office of the island community belonging to the regional district of Chania is also located in Kastri. There is a newly built police station for two police officers near the port of Karave .
The island's garbage disposal is now partly carried out by ship, and wastewater is collected exclusively in septic tanks. With EU funds, an amphitheater was built near Sarakiniko that can hold around 300 people. A tourism company is trying to run a private open-air cinema. Gavdos has its own radio station (FM 88.8), the program of which can be received in large parts of the south coast of Crete and is quite well known there.
There are some small natural fresh water springs , for example at Korfos, Agios Pavlos and Agios Georgios behind the cedar-juniper forest Kedres . Attempts have recently been made to meet the increasing demand for water by drilling. The island is rich in groundwater. Wells dug by wild campers on Lavrakas Beach , for example, provide drinking water of satisfactory quality. However, most of the water used for agriculture is still collected in cisterns .
Primary sector
Animal husbandry, agriculture and horticulture are still - at least in terms of time expenditure - the main occupation of many of the few permanent island residents and represent the largest field of activity in the colder season. Olive trees are only cultivated in two places on the island, the predominant pine vegetation gives a completely different impression than on the neighboring island of Crete, where the olive trees determine the landscape.
Tourist development
Gavdos has been a destination for backpackers since the late 1970s , some of whom stayed on the island for months and lived on the beaches of Sarakiniko, Korfos or Agios Ioannis. More and more provisional, later “real” taverns were built on the former two, which served as supply and meeting points. Gavdos was out of the question for travelers with a fixed schedule because of the risk of not getting a suitable return trip due to weather reasons.
The significant improvement in the ship connections, especially to Chora Sfakion, has changed the situation, the pier, which is at risk of waves, has been replaced, the ships are larger and more seaworthy, and in the season ships go to Crete 5 days a week. The majority of the passengers in 2006 are day tourists who book the one and a half hour crossing for a short stay on the small island. Most of them can be taken to a certain beach - or to a certain tavern - in one of the minibuses, where they spend the rest of their short time on Gavdos.
Well drilling has made it possible to rent rooms with running water, and in the evenings, generators produce electricity. Due to the lack of accessibility, the beach of Agios Ioannis resists this development, but every year in August it has become the destination of thousands of young Greeks who try to continue the beach idyll of the 70s here. A significantly higher level of environmental awareness is demonstrated. The large beach is still very clean.
Container port plans
See under the neighboring island of Gavdopoula .
traffic
All year round there is a weekly boat connection to Paleochora , with the car ferry "Daskalogiannis" if the weather permits. During the summer season there are additional boat connections to Chora Sfakion (up to 4 times a week), and irregularly to Plakias . When the sea is stormy, the regular connections can also fail for days. For medical emergencies or VIP visits there is a heliport north of Metochi . Gavdos' port Karave (gr. Καραβέ) is located on the east coast of the island. It was recently well developed with the help of EU funds and now offers very good protection all year round.
literature
- Katerina Kopaka, Christos Matzanas: Palaeolithic industries from the island of Gavdos, near neighbor to Crete in Greece , in: Antiquity Project Gallery, 83 (2009). ( academia.edu )
- Ludwig Bürchner : Gaudos . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 1, Stuttgart 1910, Col. 861.
- Giacomo Fadelli: L'esplorazione dell'Isola di Gavdos di Antonio Maria Colini e Doro Levi (Agosto 1925) , in: Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente (1997) pp. 347-380.
- Oliver Rackham, Jennifer Moody: The making of the Cretan landscape. Manchester University Press, Manchester / New York 1996, ISBN 0-7190-3647-X , limited preview in Google Book Search, book review ( memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
- Francisco W. Welter-Schultes: The land snails of the Greek island of Gávdos, the southernmost island of Europe. In: Writings on malacozoology from the House of Nature - Cismar. House of Nature Cismar , Grömitz 1998 (also diploma thesis at the University of Göttingen 1998).
Web links
- Portal of the island of Gavdos
- The container port story
- Timetable for ships to Gavdos
- Europe's southernmost radio station
- Gavdos Traveler Service (English)
- Katerina Kopaka, Christos Matzanas: Palaeolithic industries from the island of Gavdos, near neighbor to Crete in Greece (To the history - Stone Age finds in Gavdos, English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Results of the 2011 census ( Memento from June 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) ( MS Excel ; 2.6 MB) at the National Statistical Service of Greece (ΕΣΥΕ)
- ^ Hellenic Army Geographical Service, sheet “Nisos Gavdhos” 1: 50,000.
- ^ Erwin Bergmeier, Ralf Jahn, Armin Jagel: Flora and vegetation of Gávdos (Greece), the southernmost European island. I. Vascular flora and chorological relations. In: Candollea. Vol. 52, No. 2, 1997, pp. 305-358.
- ↑ Mario F. Broggi: The herpetofauna of the isolated Island of Gavdos (Greece) , in: Herpetozoa 27 (2014) 83-90 ( online , PDF).
- ↑ This and the following on the written history according to Katerina Kopaka, Christos Matzanas: Palaeolithic industries from the island of Gavdos, near neighbor to Crete in Greece , in: Antiquity Project Gallery, 83 (2009).
- ^ Robert Laffineur, Emanuele Greco: Emporia. Aegeans in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. Proceedings of the 10th International Aegean Conference , Vol. 25,1, Université de Liège, Lüttich 2005, p. 99.
- ↑ Quoted in Strabon, Geographika 7,3,6.
- ↑ On this already (and rejecting Gozo) Hans Lamer : Kalypso 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE). Volume X, 2, Stuttgart 1919, column 1784 ( digitized version ).
- ↑ Angelos Chaniotis: From Minoan Farmers to Roman Traders. Sidelights on the Economy of Ancient Crete , Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999, p. 185.
- ↑ Giacomo Fadelli: L'esplorazione dell'Isola di Gavdos di Antonio Maria Colini e Doro Levi (Agosto 1925) , in: Annuario della Scuola di Atene e delle Missioni Archaeological Italiane in Oriente (1997) pp 347-380, here: S 347.
- ↑ Charalambos Gasparis: Land and Landowners in the Greek Territories under Latin Dominion, 13th – 14th Centuries , in: Nickiphoros I. Tsougarakis, Peter Lock (ed.): A Companion to Latin Greece , Brill, Leiden / Boston 2015, p. 73 –113, here: p. 83.
- ↑ Joëlle Dalègre: Venise en Crète. Civitas venetiarum apud Levantem , Paris 2019, pp. 31, 256.
- ↑ Report of the Eighth Meeting of the British Science Association , J. Murray, London 1911, p 234th
- ↑ This refers to John Anthony Cramer : A Geographical and Historical Description of Ancient Greece , 3 vols, Volume 3, Clarendon Press, 1828, p.376...
- ↑ Angelos Chaniotis: From Minoan Farmers to Roman Traders. Sidelights on the Economy of Ancient Crete , Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999, p. 191.
- ↑ Part of the document: ... but the relationship with Turkey is still burdened Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, April 1999
