History
The village of Paleochora hasn’t always been here, the peninsula which now holds our town used to lay under water with only the highest point – where the remains of the Venetian fort lays today – jutted up like a little island above the surface. A major earthquake made the west side of Crete rise up through the sea and the peninsula of Paleochora emerged from the depths, justifying its nickname The Bride of the Libyan Sea.
In ancient times there was a city called Kalamyde a short distance north of present-day Paleochora. We know little about that city but probability suggests that it was the seaport of ancient Kandanos, and flourished in the Doric and Roman times along with the neighbouring cities of Syia (Sougia), Lissos, Poikilassos and Tara (Agia Roumeli).
Paleochora, a strategic site for controlling southwest Crete and the sea routes, attracted the attention of the Venetians, who built “Castel Selino” here in 1278. The fortress was built by the Venetian general Marino Gradenigo, the regional commander. The name of the fort was applied to the whole area, now officially known as Selino (previously known as Orina).
During the history of Selino (southwest Crete) there were countless uprisings against the Venetians. In 1322 the fortress was destroyed by the Cretan rebel leader Vardas Kallergis and his men. The archives show that the persistent Venetians rebuilt it in 1334. However, in 1539, like a lamb at the butcher’s, it was destroyed by the famous pirate Barbarossa. The fortress of Selino lay in ruins for 56 years, until Dolf undertook its restoration. Castel Selino proudly rose again in 1595, but the future still had many unpleasant surprises in store.
In 1653 Selino was occupied by the Turks, who used it for their own purposes. Later the Turks were also forced to leave which left the town abandoned, and when the British traveller Robert Pashley visited the area in 1834, he found only ruins. However, an area with so many advantages could not remain uninhabited for long. In 1886 people started coming back to reclaim their land and resettle, although they did not rebuild Castel Selino. Paleochora was bathed in blood once more during the great uprising of 1897, when the Turkish army slaughtered every Christian they found in the area. In 1908 Crete was liberated from the Turks for good and in 1913 it was unified with Greece. Paleochora with its strategically located harbour flourished due to the sea trade with Piraeus.
In 1941 the Nazis occupied Crete, and Paleochora became a battleground between the Greek and German armies. In September 1941 the Germans surrounded the whole Selino area, arrested all those suspected of resistance and imprisoned them in the school of Paleochora. Twenty-nine people were executed over the following four days for “crimes” against the German army of occupation.
In 1945 Crete was freed from its last conqueror and the reconstruction of the Greek State began. Today Paleochora is enjoying the development of the past 50 years, and the only reminder of its troubled and bloody past is the ruins of Castel Selino on the Fortezza hill, at the south end of town. Easily accessible, the leftovers of the castle invites you to have a closer look. All you need is some imagination to rebuild the fallen walls from where the battles between the Venetians, the Cretan rebels, Barbarossa’s pirates, the Turks and the Germans once looked out over the Libyan Sea.
