The summer visitor can be forgiven for thinking that Hersonissos is the result of a building boom starting the 1960’s and continuing to the present day, and indeed this is, in many ways, true. However beneath the ground and concrete jungle of 20th century tourist development lays a hidden history. With no local museum to rely on, very few visual remains and, apparently, no written history, it is difficult for the casual observer to appreciate that Hersonissos (it means peninsula by the way), has ever been anything other than what we can see today! With this in mind this article is an attempt to give an overview of local history, in the hope that someone more learned than I will be prompted to write something in more detail!
The first inhabitants of the area were displaced persons from Sparta, so I am told, a mixed race of Tyrenians and Athenians, who, although they had helped the Spartans in their war against the Helots, were not trusted by them, were imprisoned, escaped, took ship, landed on Crete, defeated the local population and settled in Hersonissos. There is evidence that the area had been inhabited since Minoan times although the name would probably have been different.
The name Hersonissos, in various forms, including the word Herronissos (which is how many English people refer to it!) has been in use since around the 5th century BC (that’s 2,500 years ago), coins found in the area from around this period indicate that the settlement was of sufficient importance to warrant producing its own coinage even before the Roman conquest of Crete. Later coins and evidence from other islands indicates that Hersonissos was linked with, and was under the control of Lyttos, and later came under the control of Knossos around 200 BC, as a treaty found in the sanctuary of Delphinius Apollo at Milatos lists Hersonissos as one of the members of the treaty.
The Roman occupation of Crete from 60BC to 350AD (roughly) brought, (as always!), political stability and with it economic prosperity, and although Lyttos for a while continued to be of importance, its’ seaport, Hersonissos, soon overtook it. Many of the excavations that have taken place, reveal the Roman settlement, which has been built over the earlier remains, and as is common in these situations earlier buildings were demolished and used as building materials. A prime example of this is the Roman theatre, which was dug up by the local population after the Cretan revolution in 1897 and the stone reused elsewhere! We can however judge the importance of Hersonissos because the Romans went to a lot of trouble building aqueducts to bring a secure water supply from the mountains down to the Port area.
Water supplies old and new, the two stone ‘towers’ either side of the valley are the Roman aqueduct. The (controversial) new dam (right) is to supply water to Iraklio. With an elevation of around 600 feet abv sea level at the dam, & some cleverly planned pipework it should be possible to deliver water at around 200 psi! The main problem would be stopping the water when it got to Iraklio! Will the dam prove to be an amenity in tourist terms remains to be seen? As a nature reserve for bird watchers, as a place to go fishing, or as a place to go sailing, the new stretch of water could be a useful tourist spot!
Christianity arrived around the 4th century AD when the first Byzantine occupation took place and at this time the wider area of Hersonissos extended from the church of St. George (near the Knossos Royal Village) to Hotel Nora at the eastern end of the Port and inland to Koutouloufari, Piscopiano, and Pano Hersonissos (the more common name of Old Hersonissos seems to be something of a misnomer, as the village expanded after the Port).
At the end of 5th century AD a large earthquake (caused by the eruption of the volcano on Santorini?) destroyed much of the port area and many of the inhabitants moved east to form a new settlement near where Hotel Nora stands today, this, and attacks by the Corsair pirates led to the development of the villages inland.
So today what remains for the visitor to see?
Remains of the Roman aqueduct crossing the valley near Potamies
Work on the new dam just south of Potamies
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