Myrtos is a coastal
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
in the west of the municipality of
Ierapetra
Ierapetra ( el, Ιεράπετρα, lit=sacred stone; ancient name: ) is a Greece, Greek town and municipality located on the southeast coast of Crete.
History
The town of Ierapetra (in the local dialect: Γεράπετρο ''Gerapetro'') is loc ...
, in the Regional Unit (previously called prefecture) of
Lasithi
Lasithi ( el, Λασίθι) is the easternmost regional unit on the island of Crete, to the east of Heraklion. Its capital is Agios Nikolaos, the other major towns being Ierapetra and Sitia. The mountains include the Dikti in the west and the Thr ...
on the Greek island of
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
. It is located from
Agios Nikolaos and from
Ierapetra
Ierapetra ( el, Ιεράπετρα, lit=sacred stone; ancient name: ) is a Greece, Greek town and municipality located on the southeast coast of Crete.
History
The town of Ierapetra (in the local dialect: Γεράπετρο ''Gerapetro'') is loc ...
, on the road to
Viannos
Viannos ( el, Βιάννος) is a municipality in the Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. The municipality has an area of . Population 5,563 (2011). The seat of the municipality is in Ano Viannos.
In September 1943, German occupation forces ...
. A little to the west of the village is the iconic conical Kolektos mountain. Myrtos is situated on the
Libyan Sea
The Libyan Sea (Greek , Latin ''Libycum Mare'', Arabic البحر الليبي) is the portion of the Mediterranean Sea north of the African coast of ancient ''Libya'', i.e. Cyrenaica, and Marmarica
(the coast of what is now eastern Libya and ...
. The patron saint of the village is Saint Anthony.
The population of the village in 2010 was approximately 600 people.
The transliteral spelling of this village is often written as Mirtos.
Myrtos has a rich history but has only prospered with the advent of tourism. The village has many tavernas and diverse shops for both residents and visitors. More recently there is now a pharmacy and an ATM. There are numerous churches, hotels, apartments and studios.
There is a regular bus service between Ierapetra and Myrtos.
History
The area surrounding Myrtos was already inhabited during the
Minoan period, but the current village dates from the first half of the twentieth century. Before that, it was the location of a small port, where inhabitants from the higher surrounding areas traded local products that they shipped to Ierápetra. Only when threats from piracy along the Cretan coast diminished and it became safer to live there, did the village of Myrtos develop.
On September 15, 1944, during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the inhabitants of Myrtos were ordered by the Nazi-German occupiers to leave the village. Many refused to do so, resulting in the massacre of eighteen inhabitants as a reprisal and the almost complete destruction of the village by fire. There is a monument to commemorate that event which has now been relocated to the periphery of Myrtos adjacent to the Heraklion/Ierapetra highway. Every year on October 28,
Ohi Day
Ohi Day or Oxi Day ( el, Επέτειος του Όχι, Epéteios tou Óchi, lit=Anniversary of the No; ) is celebrated throughout Greece, Cyprus and the Greek communities around the world on 28 October each year. ''Ohi Day'' commemorates th ...
is commemorated near this monument.
Tourism started at the beginning of the 1970s. Initially, Myrtos was especially popular amongst
hippies
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
, but later also 'regular' tourists started to visit the village. Since the 1980s, apartment complexes have been built in Myrtos, but tourism in Myrtos is still relatively small-scale and nowhere near as developed as the tourist centres which are found on the North coast of Crete.
Climate
Myrtos has a
subtropical climate
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north and ...
. The temperature in the south of Crete is a couple of degrees higher than in the north, because the colder winds from the north are blocked by the
Dikti
Dikti or Dicte ( el, Δίκτη) (also Lasithiotika Ori; el, Λασιθιώτικα Όρη "Lasithian Mountains"; anciently, Aigaion oros ( grc, Αἰγαῖον ὄρος) or la, Aegaeum mons) is a mountain range on the east of the island of C ...
mountain range (whose highest point is ).
The average temperature in the warmest months of the year (July and August) is around 30° Celsius (85 °F), though sometimes it can exceed 40° Celsius (105 °F). The temperature in the coldest months of the year (January and February) averages about 8° Celsius (46 °F), and it can sporadically snow in Myrtos.
The beaches
Myrtos has a long beach consisting not just of sand, but also of fine-grained pebbles. The beach has received the "
Blue Flag award", which requires the beach to satisfy a number of criteria in order to retain it. The nearby village of Tertsa also has a very long beach. On the two outlying beaches of Tertsa,
nudism
Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms a ...
is tolerated by the authorities.
Points of interest
Myrtos is also the location for two
Minoan
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...
archaeological sites, at
Fournou Korifi
Fournou Korifi is the archaeological site of a Minoan settlement on southern Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and th ...
and
Pyrgos, which provide evidence that the village and its environs have been inhabited since the
neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
period. There is also a Roman villa, although the ruins are now largely covered or lost due to
coastal erosion
Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward ...
and local building.
In Myrtos there is a small museum, dedicated to the local history, which features a scale model of Fournou Korifi created by John Atkinson, a British potter resident in the village who is the current museum curator. Near the small village Mithi, about 3 miles (5 km) from Myrtos lies the
Sarakina Gorge.
GPS Coordinates for Myrtos are 35.0036111° N and 25.5844444° E
Economy
Of particular importance in increasing the prosperity around Myrtos in the middle of the twentieth century was the Netherlander
Paul Kuijpers. After his studies in the Netherlands, he moved to Crete in 1966 and introduced
greenhouse
A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...
s in the southern part of the island, as a result of which farmers could harvest all year round and were less dependent on the weather. The areas surrounding Myrtos are still dominated by greenhouses often composed only of wooden frames covered with plastic sheeting. In 1971, Kuijpers was killed in a car accident and a memorial bust in
Gra Lighia commemorates his importance for the area.
References
External links
Official Website of the Village
{{Authority control
Ierapetra
Populated places in Lasithi