Gavalochori, also spelled Gavalohori (Greek: Γαβαλοχώρι), is a 1000-year-old village located in the northwestern part of the island of Crete, Greece. The village lies in a valley about three kilometers (1/2 mile) inland from the coast. Gavalochori is located in the municipality of Apokoronas and has a population of between 400 and 500, depending on the season.
Gavalochori is a historic working village and is home to twelve churches, two squares, two tavernas, a kafeneio (coffee shop/pub), a bakery, two markets, an artisan shop, a hair salon, a stone-cutting business, a taxi service, and a civil engineering office. The village is surrounded by olive groves that serve as the agricultural base for the area.
History
Gavalochori has a long and complex history. Evidence of early habitation includes double-bladed axes, vessels, lamps, utensils, and roof tiles from the Minoan age (3000–1450 BC) and coins, house foundations, tiles, and water cisterns from the Mycenaean or Dorian era (1450–1100 BC). In addition, coins, vessels, foundations, and tombs are still in evidence from the Roman (67–395 AD) period. Many buildings in the village derive from Byzantine (961–1204 AD), Venetian (1210–1669 AD), and Turkish times (1669–1898 AD).
The origin story that is often told about Gavalochori is that the village was established when the Byzantine emperor Alexios Komnenos in Constantinople sent 12 nobles to Crete at the turn of the 12th century to prevent an anticipated revolt against him. According to the story, the nobles divided Crete into 12 areas, with each of them ruling one area and often naming it after himself. One of these nobles was Filippos Gavalas, so the name Gavalochori means "village of Gavalas." Most scholars now believe that the document supposedly issued by the emperor that sent the nobles to Crete was forged. It was probably constructed to provide the powerful Cretan landowners, including the Gavalas family, with a legal basis for the maintenance of their properties after the Venetians conquered the island.
Although Gavalochori is 1,000 years old, its written history is currently only available for about the past 300 years. As documents are discovered and analyzed, earlier periods in Gavalochori's history will benefit from a more comprehensive telling of the story of the village. What is known is that, despite its noble beginnings, Gavalochori has not had an easy history. The village was hit with devastating plagues in 1770, 1797, and 1810. A destructive rain fell on Gavalochori in 1862, and torrents of water rushed through the village, destroying houses and other property and drowning a number of residents. The early 20th century was another particularly difficult time for Gavalochori. Unemployment led many men in the village to migrate to America to work in the coal mines. In 1906 alone, 200 men from Gavalochori left, depriving the village of much of its workforce (the village at the time had a population of 1200–1500).
Crete has long had to deal with invaders—Dorians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Venetians, and Turks. Gavalochori residents faced a particularly difficult period of unwanted invasion when, during World War II, German soldiers occupied the village. They used the elementary school as their headquarters, and they also identified rooms in houses that they liked and moved in, with villagers forced to live side by side with their German occupiers. The Germans also ordered the adult men of Gavalochori and surrounding villages to build fortifications at the entrance to nearby Souda Bay.
Life in Gavalochori remained fairly unchanged until the late 1960s, when electricity and a municipal water system were brought to the village. Before that, oil lamps were used to light interior spaces, and the houses had cisterns, typically made of stone, that stored rainwater. The village also had wells that were fed by two underground streams.
Gavalochori is and always has been an agricultural village. Although tourism provides some economic support for villagers today, many people in the village continue to engage in the age-old agricultural practices of raising grapes, olives, and animals. In the past, the making of silk; stone cutting; tanning leather; and the growing of wheat, cotton, sesame, carobs, and figs were major economic drivers of the village, but they are no longer significant commercial activities in Gavalochori.