Fourfouras: a village and its churches at the foot of Psiloritis

Fourfouras at the foot of Psiloritis

Fourfouras lies on the western slopes of Psiloritis in the Amari valley, that fertile trough between the Ida massif and Mount Kedros which is reached from Rethymno after about 44 kilometres. From a height of some 460 metres the eye ranges over the foothills of the mountain, over olive groves and the scattered villages of the valley. The steep rock shelf on which the houses stand explains why the place has always been compared to a fortress. Fourfouras counts as one of the most populous villages of Amari and as the historic centre of its neighbourhood; at the census of 2001 a good 500 people lived here, and unlike many mountain villages on Crete Fourfouras has kept its nursery school, primary school, gymnasium and lyceum, as well as a sports ground, a surgery, a police station and a handful of shops. The municipality of Amari has its historic seat here, and the village is the second seat of the Metropolitan of Lambi, Syvritos and Sfakia. Its focus is the central square, shaded by a large plane tree; the older houses and the lower spring are in the western part of the village.

The origin of the name and the history of the village

There is no generally accepted explanation of the place name. One local account points to the defensive look of the settlement on its spur of rock; the historian Stefanos Xanthoudidis, by contrast, derived the name from a Byzantine family called Fourfouras, a member of which is said to have been the first settler, and the schoolmaster Emmanouil Lambrinakis thought of a Latin root. According to tradition the oldest settlement lay at a spot called Kalota and was moved to its present position because of Saracen raids, the spring of “Kato Vrysi” – the lower spring – making it possible to stay; in the neighbouring village of Vizari they say that shepherds from Psiloritis at first kept no more than a station here. In writing the place is attested in the Venetian period: in 1577 as “Furfura”, in 1583 in Kastrofylakas with 225 inhabitants, in 1630 in Basilicata. Under Ottoman rule the people of Amari kept up their Orthodox communities – in 1834 there were 40 Christian and 6 Turkish families in Fourfouras – and took part in the Cretan risings of 1821 and 1866. In February 1822 a costly engagement was fought near the village; as captains in this fighting local tradition names Georgios Simantiris, Emmanouil Sarris and Pantelis Diamantidis. The last Muslims left in April 1897. Fourfouras was also the birthplace of the doctor and politician Georgios Andreadakis, to whom a monument has been put up in the village, and a local man, Georgios Tyrakis, belonged in 1944 to the party that abducted the German General Kreipe.

Panagia Kardiotissa at Livada

South to south-east of the village, at Livada, a spot grown with cypresses and with a wide view over the Amari valley, stands the church of Panagia Kardiotissa (Παναγία Καρδιώτισσα). The small, single-aisled, barrel-vaulted building dates from the 14th century and was extended westwards in the early 19th century. In the older eastern part, remains of the painted decoration of the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century survive: images of the Mother of God, scenes from the Gospels and warrior saints, in a programme that follows the familiar patterns of the period. A donor inscription in the sanctuary names Nikolaos Arkoleos, who with his family dedicated the church to the Mother of God; tradition connects the name Arkoleos with the legendary twelve Byzantine noble houses of Crete. Around the church the ruins of the cells of a former convent of nuns can be made out, and beside them burial places of the Andreadakis family; notarial deeds of the 17th century confirm that a monastery existed on this spot.

The tradition of the nun Mariam and the miraculous light

Church tradition relates that the nun Mariam, looking out from Livada, saw an unusual light on the mountain opposite. She followed the sign and came to the place where the icon of the Transfiguration of Christ was found – there, on the northern side of Kedros above Ano Meros, among tall plane trees and beside a spring, lies the monastery of Kaloeidena, at whose feast on 6 August the people of both villages still meet and hold a festival after the service. The monastery is thought to have been founded in the 13th or 14th century by a man named Kaloidas, a surname recorded at Fourfouras itself in Venetian times, and appears as “Caloidhena” in Barozzi’s description of 1577; it was destroyed by the Turks in 1823, and its church, which collapsed after heavy rain in 1992, was restored in 2001. The grave of Mariam is preserved beside the church at Livada; her memory is part of the spiritual history of the former convent. On the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, 8 September, a service is held here and the inhabitants of Fourfouras gather; May Day, too, is traditionally spent under the cypresses of Livada.

The churches of St Paraskevi and St George

In the village itself stands the church of the Great Martyr St Paraskevi (Agia Paraskevi), built in 1515 under Venetian rule; its patronal feast falls on 26 July. In the parish church, which is dedicated to St George and to the Dormition of the Mother of God, the feasts are kept on 23 April and 15 August. The present building of Agios Georgios was put up in 1873 on the site of an older church.

Agios Georgios at Mourtzes

At Mourtzes, south-east of Fourfouras and close to the southern entrance to the village, a small single-aisled, barrel-vaulted church of St George survives which Giuseppe Gerola already included in his catalogue of the painted churches of Crete. Its frescoes, of good quality, and its inscriptions belong to the years 1411 and 1620. The two dates mark successive phases of painting and renewal, not two different churches: the walls went on serving the community, and the painted layer was added to in different periods. The doorway on the south side is worth a second look, for it is decorated with glazed ceramic bowls set into the masonry. The building is only in moderate condition.

Other shrines and paths

In the surrounding country are the chapel of St Catherine, the church of the Annunciation, the chapel of St Antony with damaged wall paintings and the chapel of the Transfiguration of Christ, which stands on a rock about 200 metres from the village – built, according to legend, by a janissary who wished to atone for the murder of a priest. To these must be added the church of St Nektarios, built in 1999. Less than a kilometre north of the village the nature park of Fourfouras has been laid out with paths and resting places; from there walks set out for Livada, for Mourtzes and for the foot of Psiloritis. Fourfouras is, moreover, a classic starting point for the ascent of the summit, and reckoned the easiest approach to it from the west: the European long-distance path E4 leaves from the eastern side of the village and climbs in several hours into the high mountains, by way of the crag of Mathiou Charakas, the spring of Ochra, the kermes-oak wood of Chelidona and Korakia; a branch of the path links Fourfouras with Gerakari and with the mountain refuge of Toumbotos Prinos. The youth association organises communal ascents in summer, with a night spent at the summit chapel of Timios Stavros. In August the athletic contests known as the “Marakeia” take place, named after the discus thrower Michalis Marakis. Fourfouras is also known for its “School of Nature and Colours”, the state primary school whose unconventional teaching has won it recognition throughout Greece and carried the name of the village far beyond Amari.

Fourfouras brings together the rural history of Amari, its Venetian and Ottoman past, Byzantine churches with paintings of the 14th to 17th centuries and the mountain landscape of Psiloritis. With tavernas, kafenia, a bakery and a few rooms to let, the village makes a good base from which to explore the church monuments, the walking paths and the living culture of the surrounding villages.

Fourfouras: a village and its churches at the foot of Psiloritis

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Fourfouras at the foot of Psiloritis

Panagia Kardiotissa at Livada

The churches of St Paraskevi and St George

Agios Georgios at Mourtzes