Kapetaniana
Kapetaniana ( Greek Καπετανιανά ( n. Sg. )) Is a small mountain village with 80 inhabitants in Crete in the Asterousia Mountains and belongs to the municipality of Kofinas in the municipality of Gortyna . The village is located on the steep mountain slopes of the Kofina at an altitude of 800 m. From the top of the mountain you have a wonderful view of the Libyan Sea and the Gulf and the Messara plain .
Kapetaniana consists of the two villages Kato Kapetaniana ( Lower Kapetaniana ) and Upper Kapetaniana . No cars are allowed in the village.
History and traditions
In Minoan times (approx. 3000 BC) there was a summit sanctuary on the mountain, in front of which there was a temple center, which was dedicated to the goddess of birth Eileithyia . Significant archaeological finds such as B. bronze statues are in the archaeological museums of Athens and Heraklion . Today there is a stone chapel on the mountain, the Timion Stavron , d. H. is consecrated to the erected cross . On September 14th every year there is the summit mass, to which the locals from the surrounding villages have increasingly made pilgrimages in recent years. They bring basil and loaves of bread with them to be consecrated and eaten there.
Oral tradition says that there was a secret tunnel to the beach near the chapel, which three boys are said to have found while playing. They took a rooster and sent it through the tunnel, but it didn't come back and they found it on the beach a few days later. A tree was then planted over the entrance, which is still there today. Below the church on the beach is another pilgrimage destination, the Koudouma.
Residents
Kapetaniana in Greek means a place where the kapetanii lived. A kapetanios was someone who under no circumstances allowed himself to be captured during the occupation, who was incorruptible, proud and combative. The village was never occupied by the foreign rulers, neither by the Arabs, nor by the Venetians, nor by the Turks.
It was not until the Second World War that German troops occupied the village and the locals had to leave the village, which, due to its exposed location, was well suited for observing the south coast. The Kapetaniani resisted and tried to drive out the German occupation with the means of partisan struggle. Almost every family still has weapons today, as a symbol of the defensive clan and for hunting.
Churches and monasteries
Almost the entire region of the Asteroussia Mountains was barely populated for a long time because it was difficult to access. During the Venetian occupation of 1204, Orthodox monks and abbots came to this remote area to live their religion and not join the Western Roman Church. At this time 23 churches and monasteries were built in the Asteroussia Mountains, which also taught the Orthodox Christian religion in secret during the Turkish occupation. The Panagia Church and the Michelangelo Church testify to the highest art of fresco painting, because the monasteries in their seclusion did not want to do without the artful furnishings of the churches and had their own fresco painters come from Byzantium.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Results of the 2011 census at the National Statistical Service of Greece (ΕΛ.ΣΤΑΤ) ( Memento from June 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (Excel document, 2.6 MB)
Coordinates: 34 ° 58 ' N , 25 ° 2' E