Crete-Discover the Unknown Crete

C H A P T E R 2
Tales of Neapoli
and surroundings
The small Museum
of Neapoli contains
an important
collection of statues
from Classical and
Roman times
The fountain in
Houmeriakos was
built during the
long Turkish
occupation of
Crete
Travelling back towards Ayios Nikolaos
and passing through a deep gorge crowned
by the Monastery of Ayios Georgios Selinari,
one arrives at Neapoli, a lively agricultural
town beneath the mountain of Mavro Dasos
which has a beautiful little museum with
finds from the excavations of Dreros and
statues from the Roman era. In 1340 at Kares,
the oldest part of Neapoli, a certain Petros
Philargi was born, a young man of great
intelligence who was sent to study in Paris
and in Oxford in order to follow a career in
the priesthood. He became archbishop of
Milan and then cardinal, and finally, at the
time of the schism in the Western Church
(which saw the curia of Rome in opposition
to that of Avignon) Petrus Philatri was made
Pope, taking the name of Alexander V: he
held the position for only a year, from 1409
to 1410 and died poisoned by his
adversaries.
A few kilometres from Neapoli, in the
little village of Houmeriakos there remain
some traces of Venetian influence, among
which a little villa with
an attractive ashlarwork
doorway, which
the Cretans call a
Roman door. The town
chronicles recount
that in this house there
once lived a Turk
called Hussein who
having fallen for the
daughter of the local
priest, kidnapped her with the intention of
making her his lover. But at nightfall the
maiden strangled the pasha, let herself
down from the window disguised as a
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