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The village of Komitades is situated at the outlet of the Imbros gorge. | |||
| There are several interpretations of the name of the village: | ||||
| One
has it that some Venetian counts (comes) fled from the big cities on the
northern coast and settled here after the Turkish invasion of Crete
in 1625.
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| Another
interpretation refers to the Greek verb "komizo", which means "to
transport". This is because in former times the village was a busy
commercial town, whose inhabitants partly sailed the
Mediterranean and partly resold their merchandise in the rich cities of
Northern Crete. The Imbros gorge was at that time the only passage to
the north.
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| A
third interpretation associates the name of the village with the Greek
word for market town (komi).
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| The
most plausible explanation, however, is that the name of the village is derived
from the its founder, Komitas, a surname which has been known in Crete
since 1368.
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The inhabitants mainly make a living from stock-farming (sheep and goats), olive oil and honey, but lately tourism has become of great importance. Every year many tourists walk through the Imbros gorge and in order to cater to them quite a few eating places have opened as well as a taxi rank, where tourists can be driven to Chora Sfakion or to Imbros, depending on whether they are returning to the northern coast by bus or have a car parked at the entrance of the gorge. | |||
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South of the village there is an old Agios Georgios church dating from the beginning of the 14th century. |
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Even though the church is very old, its fascinating frescoes are still in quite good condition. | |||
| They were made in 1313 by one of the well-known painters at that time, Ioannis Pagomenos, who also decorated seven other churches in the Selino district and on the Apokoronas peninsula. |
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According to tradition the church was built by some of the villagers (among others Emmanouil Skordilis and the monk Gerasimos Fourogiorgis, who can be seen in the picture) out of gratitude that their village was not destroyed or damaged in one of the many pirate attacks, which ravaged the coasts of Crete at that time. | |||
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| South
west of Komitades there is a Panagia Thymiani church (Virgin Mary Thyme).
This name came about because the icon of Panagia was found under a thyme shrub.
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| The
history of the church is rather special, as in former times it functioned
as council and court of justice. Inhabitants from all over the area assembled
here in order to discuss and make decisions on matters of mutual importance. Also
people accused of sheep-stealing were brought here. They had
to swear by the miracle-working icon that they had not committed the
theft, and it was then up to Virgin Mary to judge.
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In 1821 the church played a prominent
role in history, because this is where the
Cretan Revolutionary Council met and agreed on participation in
the Great Greek Revolution (29th May).
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| The
church was originally part of a monastery of the same name. It
was founded in 1500, but was destroyed by the Turks after the rebellion
in 1821 which failed. The monastery was definitively abandoned in 1905 and assigned
to the Preveli monastery.
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| The old monks' cells existed until 1942, when the Germans tore them down in order to reuse the materials for their pillboxes. | ||||
