Kouroutes – mountain village of Amari beneath Psiloritis

Kouroutes at the foot of Psiloritis

Kouroutes lies in the Amari valley, on the western and south-western slopes of Psiloritis, some 510 metres above the sea and about 50 kilometres from Rethymno on the road that continues to Fourfouras. The village is on record from Venetian times. A document of 1301 names it casalinum Coruces, Francesco Barozzi lists it in 1577, the census of Kastrofylakas counted 221 inhabitants here in 1583, and Basilicata mentions the place again in 1630. In the surrounding countryside, and above all in the higher-lying field called Amygdales (“almond trees”), remains of houses, workshops and graves have come to light, together with pottery, a cistern and a basilica – evidence of settlement in Late Minoan, Roman and early Byzantine times. Archaeologists of the Heraklion Museum recorded the ruins early in the 20th century, and Roman sherds turned up in 1935, but no systematic excavation has yet been undertaken. Local tradition holds that the old settlement was destroyed by huge rockfalls from the slopes of Psiloritis. The village of today, set in what is known locally as the Asomathianos valley, counts only a few dozen permanent residents, most of them stock-breeders; in 1940 it still had a good 300. In the uprisings against Ottoman rule and in the resistance of the Second World War the village sent its men to fight in the Psiloritis bands, a role shared by most of the Amari villages.

Two quarters and old churches

From early times Kouroutes has been divided into Panochori, the upper village, and Katochori, the lower village. In the Ottoman period the upper quarter was inhabited mainly by Muslim families; their cemetery lay nearby, remembered in the field name Mezaria, and other Turkish field names have survived as well, while Arabic inscriptions can still be seen on some of the older houses. The Egyptian census of 1834 recorded 5 Christian and 16 Turkish families, and in 1881 the village had 104 Christians and 78 Muslims. The lower quarter, Katochori, was the Christian centre. Surviving here are the church of the Annunciation (Evangelismos), the former principal church bearing the date 1856, together with the recently restored church of St John in the upper village, the cave church of St Antonios at the cemetery and the one-time cemetery church of St Minas, a 14th-century building with badly faded frescoes. Today it is the upper quarter that is the livelier of the two.

The present parish church is dedicated to the Ascension of Christ. Beside it stand the spiritual and cultural centre, consecrated in about 2002, with a small amphitheatre decorated with works by the local sculptor Manolis Noukakis, the village square, the kafenia and a shop. The feast of the Ascension is kept according to the Orthodox calendar forty days after Easter, so it always falls on a Thursday in May or June; the Greek word Ανάληψη means “Ascension”.

The chapel of the Apostle Titus at Pardi

In the oak wood of Pardi, about four kilometres from the village and some 1,300 metres above sea level, stands the small stone chapel of the holy Apostle Titus. The building is dated to the 14th century and rests on the ruins of an older structure; after long abandonment the villagers restored it in the 1960s and dedicated it to the disciple of the Apostle Paul, the first bishop of the Church of Crete. On 25 August, the feast of St Titus, the Divine Liturgy is followed by a popular festival beneath the centuries-old oaks, to which the association of Kouroutes natives living in Athens also contributes. The wood itself, where the steep western face of Psiloritis meets the Amari plain, is one of the finest surviving stands of evergreen holm oak (prinos) on Crete, mixed with cypress, maple and plane; it lies under snow for much of the winter, and the rough track up from the village is best left to a four-wheel-drive vehicle or tackled on foot.

The way to the summit of Psiloritis

Above the chapel, at the place called Toumbotos Prinos, about 1,600 metres up, stands a mountain refuge built in 1984 by the Mountaineering Club of Rethymno, which still runs it; it sleeps around thirty and is opened on request. A twelve-kilometre dirt road climbs to it from Kouroutes, and walkers can reach it in about four hours from Fourfouras along a section of the E4. From here the European long-distance path E4 leads on to the summit of Psiloritis, where at 2,456 metres – the highest point of Crete, with the greatest topographic prominence of any mountain in Greece – stands the chapel of Timios Stavros, dedicated to the Holy Cross. Allow about three hours from the refuge to the top, or seven to eight for the full round trip from Fourfouras, which involves some 1,700 metres of ascent and is the most demanding of the usual routes up the mountain. The climb depends on the weather and calls for fitness and plenty of water, since there are no springs on the upper slopes; snow lies from early winter until early summer, so May to October is the season. At the top a panorama opens over the whole of central Crete, on clear days from sea to sea and even as far as the island of Gavdos to the south.

Nature and the road to Apodoulou

Along the road from Kouroutes to Nithavris, reddish outcrops of alkali basalt catch the eye – ancient volcanic rocks that solidified as lavas on the floor of the Tethys Ocean some 65 million years ago and now form one of the geosites of the Psiloritis UNESCO Global Geopark, a member of the network since 2001. Rare plants have found a foothold in their crevices, among them the rock cress Aethionema saxatile. About 1.4 kilometres south of the village centre a viewpoint has been laid out with stone benches and tables. Kouroutes can comfortably be combined in a single drive with Fourfouras and Apodoulou.

So in one place the mythical memory of Ida, the archaeological traces of ancient settlements, the Ottoman history of the two quarters, Orthodox churches and the mountain path up Psiloritis all come together. Village tradition adds its own tales – such as that of the golden loom which is said to lie buried, together with its weaver, at the place called Stimonas, and to show itself only at sunrise in May.