Symi Village

Kato Symi (or Simi) is a village and seat of the homonymous community of the Municipality of Viannos in the Regional Unit of Heraklion. It belonged to the Viannos District of Heraklion Prefecture.

Kato Symi is located in a valley overgrown with vegetation, in a landscape with imposing wildness. It is surrounded by a wooded mountainous area. Symi, as it is more commonly called by the Cretans, has the largest forest cover in the prefecture of Heraklion, since in its area is the famous forest of Symi, a continuation of the Selakanos forest, and it is often called podendrousa.

At the edge of the village flows the Blavopotamos, which continues its course towards Faflago and ends in the Libyan Sea. Its distance from Ierapetra is 30 km and from Heraklion is 74 km.

The main occupation of the inhabitants is agriculture, animal husbandry and beekeeping. Early vegetables are grown in the coastal areas.

In fact, it is the only municipal district of Viannos that is ecclesiastically subordinated to the Holy Metropolis of Ierapytni and Sitia, as Symi was once part of the Municipality of Mournia Lasithi. The nearby settlement of Ano Symi still belongs to the Community of Mournion of Ierapetra today.

Natural monuments and attractions

The entire valley of Kato Symi is overgrown with walnut, cherry, apricot, pear and other fruit trees.

Due to its strongly mountainous character, Symi has many caves, the most important of which are the Zibraga Caves, the Kissospelio, the Leri cave, the Bouboulis cave, the Riza cave and the Halavra cave.

Another important natural monument in Lower Symi is the Kapnistis Gorge, where, according to tradition, a huge man, Sarantapichos, lived.

The most important churches are of Panagia tis Galatoktismene and Nistikoktismene, of Christ the Master, of Agios Ioannis the Forerunner on the Ierapetra-Viannos road axis and of Agios Georgios. The first one was built in 1385, as it is written on the door of the Holy Step and it was named so, because according to tradition, the temple was built from mud and milk instead of water, with fasting craftsmen, throughout its construction. The church of Agios Georgios is located about 1 km outside the village, in the currently uninhabited settlement of Apano Symi, which administratively belongs to the municipality of Ierapetra, at an altitude of 940 m. and has frescoes by Emmanuel Fokas, from the middle of the 15th century.

The most notable points of the village are Patela in Pano Geitonia and the location at Skepastos in Mesa Geitonia, where there is a water source, the so-called Mesa Flega. The center of the village is in Karavos, where there is a square with an imposing plane tree. This is where the cafes and most of the village life are concentrated.

Archaeological significance and Historical evidence

The ancient sanctuary of Kato Symi

In Kato Symi are located the most important antiquities of Viannos. This is the Neopalatial (Middle Minoan III b) sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite at Krya Vrysi. The sanctuary is one of the most important of antiquity, as well as the only place of worship known to date in Crete and in Greece that functioned for many centuries without interruption.
It was founded around 2,000 BC. The location of the Sanctuary is identified with the Holy Mount, according to Ptolemy, which is located between the ancient Tsoutsouras and Ierapytna (today’s Ierapetra). Worship in this area began from the Middle Minoan Era and continued until the Roman imperial years. Finds from the sanctuary of Symi are today in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion.

Read more about the Minoan site at the bottom of the page.

Recent History

The village is mentioned in the census of Kastrophylakas “Simi Catto” under the name (K97) and with 146 inhabitants in 1583. During the period of the Turkish occupation, some Turks lived there. In 1834 it had 38 Christian and 10 Turkish families, while Apano Symi was inhabited by 96 Christian families. In 1881, Kato Symi had 371 Christian inhabitants.

During the Revolution of 1866, 2 young women from Kato Symi, Maria Panakaki and Ergina Tsagatopoula, while being pursued by Turkish soldiers, fell like young Souliotisses from the Goupo cliff, as they preferred to die rather than be dishonored.

In 1943, a German expeditionary force went to the village to punish the inhabitants, because they had killed two Germans in the outpost of Symi. At the entrance of the valley a well-fortified rebel body attacked the Germans, on September 12, of whom they killed 84 and executed 12. Other sources speak of 70 dead on the German side. After that, the Nazis destroyed all the villages of eastern Viannos and western Ierapetra from the river Myrtos to Amira and shot all the male inhabitants (Viannos Holocaust).

Nikos Syngelakis or Chatziaanagnostis or Symianos was born in Kato Symi in 1790, a traitor before the Revolution of 1821. He was the terror of the janissaries of Viannos.

Read more about the battle of Symi at the bottom of the page.

Additional Info

Altitude: 780m

In total the Symi community has 138 inhabitants (2011 census)

Its distance from Ierapetra is 30 km and from Heraklion is 74 km

Symi Forest: According to the information provided to us by the Forest Service of Heraklion, it covers an area of almost 10,000 acres.

Sights around Symi village : Symi Pine Forest, Omalos Plateau, The Balcony of Paradise, Lapathos Plateau, Ano Symi Village with its chapels, sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite, and many hiking trails

Some details about the Minoan sanctuary

Sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite

This sanctuary complex is situated on the southern side of Mount Dikti, 1030 meters above sea level, just above the village of Kato Simi or Symi, with fantastic views down to the south coast. A spring emerges from the rocks immediately to the east of the site. The site has been excavated over the last 30 years by A. Lebessi.

Unusually for Crete this sanctuary remained in constant use from the Minoan Protopalatial period up to Roman times. There is some evidence of activity here from MM II, but the first of the remaining structures dates from MM III. This was rebuilt and added to in later generations. A Neopalatial sanctuary has been uncovered. Interestingly it is located on the side of a mountain rather than on the top like the Peak Sanctuaries and this has given rise to speculation that it was used for different religious rituals than the Peak Sanctuaries themselves.

The Neopalatial Sanctuary was surrounded by a wall or temenos, rectangular in shape. A paved road round the outside of the wall led to the entrance of the Sanctuary and was possibly used for processions on days of religious ritual. It has been suggested that a rectangular structure inside the walled area was a tripartite shrine, similar to the one seen on the Peak Sanctuary rhyton from Zakros.

A rubbish dump located inside the wall contained the remains of animal bones, cups and pots. This evidence suggests that some form of communal eating took place at the time of the religious rituals.

Cult finds from this area included libation tables, some with Linear A inscriptions, cult vessels and symbols denoting the double axe and horns of consecration. Preziosi and Hitchcock, in their book Aegean Art and Architecture, argue that the presence of a number of bronze figurines, of which male figurines outnumber female figurines by a ratio of two to one, suggests that the sanctuary was used for making offerings primarily by male members of the Minoan elite.

After the complex was destroyed, most likely by an earthquake, a new building, S, was constructed in the south west corner of the site during the second Neopalatial period. LM IB remains were found in this building but it remained in use right through to LM IIIC.

The Battle of Symi in 1943

In August 1943, the Germans installed a two-soldier outpost in the village of Kato Symi, at the foot of the Lasithi mountains. Apparently he was destined to gather potatoes and other items from Symi and the surrounding area to feed the Germans who lived in Ano Vianno. This was released then. However, the fact that the outpost was on the road that connected the villages of Viannos District with the rebels’ hideout shows that its real destination was different.

Towards the end of August 1943, there was a split in the guerrilla group, which until then had been united and constituted the armed section of the National Liberation Front, as explicitly mentioned in Mann’s “Memoirs”. Baduva. After this split, the groups of Yiannis Podias and Dimitris Papas left the “Chametis” position and went down further south to the “Alevras” position. However, in the conduct of the battle of Symi, which we will see below, they reunited and acted together.

On September 8, 1943, the capitulation of Italy took place and it spread from the surroundings of Man. Batouva that the British would land in Crete and specifically on the coasts of the provinces of Viannos and Ierapetra. These news generated indescribable excitement among the inhabitants, as it was even said that Man. Batouvas was in consultation with General Karta, commander of the Italian troops of Lasithi prefecture, so that the Italians would hand over their weapons to the rebels and those of them who wanted to fight with the Germans. But this information remained only “information” and wishful thinking.

But in the atmosphere that was created, something happened, which was to have unpredictable consequences’ on the night of September 9-10, 1943, the two soldiers of the German outpost of Symi were killed by Mann’s collaborators. Batuva, who, as he states in his “Memoirs” (p. 318), gave the order to neutralize the outpost. After the extermination of the Germans, a large force of the German army was gathered in Ano Vianno and on Sept. 12 one of them advanced eastward towards Kato Symi.

During their passage through the various villages, the Germans took about twenty hostages, among them the priest and teacher of Kefalovrysi Mattheos Gilaidakis, who took him out of the village church where he was officiating – it was Sunday morning! Perhaps they intended to execute them in Lower Symi as revenge for the murder of the two Germans or to have them in front of them as a provocation.

The insurgents were immediately notified of the German movements. Four groups led by Christos Batouvas, Giorgi Nirianos, Yiannis Podias and Dimitris Papas took suitable positions in Kato Symi and on the heights located on the eastern side of the valley, through which the road to Kato Symi passes.

And when the Germans at 10 a.m. around the 12th of September they started to enter the valley with the hostages in front and were approaching the village, first the rebels of Dim. Papa suddenly hit them from the east side.

The Germans were surprised, as several were killed with the first blow, and they left the hostages, who escaped and joined the rebels. The battle was generalized in the area between Symi and Pefkos and lasted until late, at which point the rebels retreated to the mountain with one dead loss, Apostolos Vagionakis of Podia’s group, from the Myths of Ierapetra, and two wounded, Georgios Mastrantonakis from K. Symi and Emman. Iliaki from Amira, of the group of Chr. Baduva.

The losses of the Germans are not absolutely ascertained, as they transported the dead and wounded with many animals and as night had fallen in the meantime. At that time, the highway only existed as far as Ano Vianno, at a distance of approximately 12 km from the site of the battle. However, based on various data and testimonies of the time, the losses of the Germans are estimated at approximately 70 dead, over 40 wounded and 13 prisoners taken by the rebels on the mountain.