Mesa Mouliana and Exo Mouliana

Mesa Mouliana and Exo Mouliana

Mesa Mouliana (Μέσα Μουλιανά), “Inner Mouliana”, lies at about 400 metres above sea level, some 19 kilometres west of Sitia and four beyond Sfaka on the national road, and is surrounded on all sides by vineyards. The village is known for its long tradition of vine-growing and wine-making. What is pressed here is above all a red from the Liatiko grape, grown in the district called Agrilis and sold as Moulianitiko; the locals call it mavro krasi, literally “black wine”. The place is first mentioned, as Muliana, in 1370, and the Venetian census of 1583 lists it as “Messa Mugliana” with a good 450 inhabitants – at that time one of the larger villages of the province. In 1881 there were 486, and in 2021 there were 288. Where the name comes from is disputed: some derive it from the verb moulono (to crouch, to stoop), because the villages lie low beneath the surrounding mountains, others from the Venetian mulo (mule), and a third explanation speaks of two brothers called Moulianos.

At Sellades, close to the village, the Cretan archaeologist Stefanos Xanthoudidis investigated in 1903 two tholos tombs that were built at the end of the Bronze Age and went on being used, burial after burial, into Early Geometric times. The grave goods included a gold funerary mask, stirrup jars, bronze vessels, swords and a bronze fibula. The best-known piece is a bell-shaped krater painted with hunting scenes and the figure of a rider – the oldest representation of a man on horseback known from Crete. The finds are displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. Sellades is not the only ancient site in the parish: traces of Minoan occupation have also been noted at Vourlia, Gouves and Ellinika.

The patron saint of Mesa Mouliana is St John the Theologian, the Evangelist. The parish church is dedicated to him; beside it an enclosed spring with a stone fountain house of Ottoman date survives in good condition in the middle of the village, once its meeting place. The Orthodox Church celebrates the saint on 8 May and 26 September. A second church, Agia Triada, keeps remnants of wall painting in its central aisle.

About three kilometres further east lies Exo Mouliana (Έξω Μουλιανά), “Outer Mouliana”, at just under 370 metres on a mountainside. Here stands the Byzantine church of St George, of the 15th century, with wall paintings and inscriptions of that date; it gave the village its Venetian name – the census of 1583 calls it “San Zorzi Mouliana”, with 261 inhabitants – and its people are still known as Agiorgites. To the west, in a small hollow, rises the church of Afentis Christos (“Christ the Lord”), which is dedicated to the Transfiguration and dated to the 14th century – a plain, powerful building whose patronal feast is organised every year on 6 August by the village’s cultural association. In Ottoman times Muslims also lived in Exo Mouliana, 108 of them beside 570 Christians in 1881; the minaret that stood on the village square, Platia Strata, was later pulled down.

Those with more time can combine the visit with a walk: below Exo Mouliana the path through the Richtis Gorge begins at the stone arched bridge of Lachanas. The gorge is about five kilometres long and has the status of a protected park. In roughly three hours the path leads, in the shade of plane trees and oleander, to a waterfall some twenty metres high and on to the shingle beach of Richtis, just east of the hamlet of Kalavros, which can also be reached by car. The going is moderate for most of the year but harder in winter, when the stream is full.