This section is designed to present and preserve important sources and resources about the history of Gavalochori. Many documents and videos about Gavalochori are at risk of being lost because they either have not been made publicly available or because those who would find them to be of interest do not know of their existence. By including them in this website, we hope to contribute to their preservation, and we hope to expand this section as we become aware of more such resources. Included here are works written by Gavalochori residents that document historical and cultural practices of the village, documents by historians and archaeologists who have studied Gavalochori and the Apokoronas region, and videos and audio recordings about Gavalochori that contain useful historical information and serve as records of the village from various moments in time.
Γαβαλοχώρι Αποκορώνου: Η Ταυτότητά Του (Gavalochori–Apokoronas: Its Identity) is a book about the history of Gavalochori written by Emmanuel Vorinaki, a priest who lived in Gavalochori. It contains childhood memories and information about agricultural practices, festivals, and the old school. The primary focus of the book, however, is on the churches in Gavalochori, and it provides detailed information about their history and their priests gathered from a number of Gavalochori residents. The book was published in 2000 by M. Manioudakis E.P.E. of Chania, Crete.
Three books by Christina Koustouraki-Koukoulari (two in Greek and one in English) are how-to books for making kopaneli lace—lace made using a bobbin that is a traditional craft centered in Gavalochori. The books include photographs of lace, lists of the supplies needed to make the lace, instructions on how to wind the bobbins, guides for creating various designs, and summaries of the techniques for making different kinds of lace. The author was born in Gavalochori, where she was taught the craft of kopaneli by her mother. She continues to teach the craft of lace making in Athens and in 1990 founded the Association of Friends for the Continuation and Preservation of Kopaneli to preserve the handicraft. These books were scanned and linked to this website with the permission of the author.
The document Γαβαλοχώρι Χανίων: Zητήματa Προστασίας ενός Πaρaδοσιακού Συνόλou (Gavalochori of Chania: Issues of Protection of a Traditional Community) was a study of the architecture of Gavalochori conducted in 2020 by Sofia-Rafailia Mandi and Androulla Agapiou of the Technical University of Crete. It provides a history of Gavalochori; discusses the architecture of its traditional houses; explains the policies and decrees related to architectural preservation in Greece; and provides an assessment of the built environment in Gavalochori, including the uses, maintenance, and alteration of traditional buildings in the village. Of particular interest are the photographs at the end of the study that show buildings as they are now compared to how they looked in earlier times.
Expedition is a magazine focused on archaeology and anthropology published by the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The issue that is linked here is from 1990, and it is entirely devoted to archaeological work on Crete. Jennifer A. Moody, the co-director of the Vrokastro Survey Project on Crete and the co-author of the article on the project, is a research associate in the field of classics at the University of Texas at Austin. She has owned a home on Crete for many years.
In his article, “Byzantine Families in Venetian Context,” published in 1990 in Byzantina Symmeikta, Charalambos Gasparis of the National Hellenic Research Foundation uses the history and lineage of two major families to explore how members of the Byzantine upper class in the 13th century reacted after the arrival of the Venetians on Crete. One of those families is the Gavalas family, whose name was given to the village of Gavalochori. Gasparis details the number and members of the family, their marriages, their attitude toward the Venetian regime, and their economic activities. The author gave us permission to link his article, and because it was published in an open-access journal, it is also available elsewhere on the internet.
The first chapter of Dimitris Tsougarakis’s book, Byzantine Crete: From the 5th Century to the Venetian Conquest, provides a historical outline of Crete from the 5th century to the year 1211. Pages 81-88 of the chapter cover the alleged origin story of Gavalochori about the 12 nobles who were sent by an emperor to settle in Crete. The chapter is linked to this website with permission of the author.
Chryssa A. Maltezou’s chapter, “Byzantine Legends in Venetian Crete,” which appeared in the book Bosphorou: Essays in Honour of Cyril Mango, includes a discussion of the legend that tells the origin story of Gavalochori (see pages 233-237). Permission to scan and link the chapter to this website was given by the publisher of the book, Adolf M. Hakkert.
Dimitris Tsougarakis has also published an article on the Apokoronas prefecture or region, of which Gavalochori is a part. Part of the proceedings of a conference on Apokoronians in 2020, the article, “Apokoronas: Past and Perspective,” is about the history and geography of Apokoronas in the Byzantine Empire and the early Venetian era. The article is included here with the permission of the author.
The next three links are about the tradition of kopaneli lace making in Gavalochori. The first two connect to videos that were shown in 2010 on the TV show Good Morning on Crete TV. They show women making the lace and sharing information about this traditional handicraft.
The third link below is an audio recording by Christina Koustouraki-Koukoulari by Κάθε Μία Ιστορία telling about her experiences with kopaneli lace making. Christina is the founder of the Association of Friends for the Continuation and Preservation of Kopaneli, and the recording (and transcriptions in Greek and English) are included here with her permission.
Kopaneli Gave Me Life
Christina Koustouraki-Koukoulari
Athens, 2023
When I was the age of 10, I should tell you that in my neighborhood, kopaneli was very well established. It was a household craft. At that time, there were at least 10 women ages 20-30 who would sit on the street and place their “kousounia” (bobbin lace pillows) on the wall. They sang their “mantinades” and would make lace, and periodically, they went into their houses to check on the food they were making.
I would play with their kopaneli sticks and their kopaneli and tangle them up. When they finished their chores, they would give me a little smack: “Christina, you’ve ruined our work!” I loved it. Watching it, I learned how to make kopaneli. Nobody showed me, but by watching the women, I learned how to make the bobbin lace.
But what was I to do if I wanted to make lace myself? One day, I went to our garden and cut a leaf of the prickly pear tree, which is soft. I stole from my mother a spool of thread that she used to weave with. But I also wanted sticks for the kopaneli, so I cut a branch from the carob tree and made sticks on which I then wound the thread from the spool.
Now I needed pins, but I couldn’t steal pins. So I went to the lower field of our garden to a wild pear tree that I knew had thorns. I cut the thorns off. Then I hid under a bush in the threshing circle because I’d stolen the spool, and I knew my mother was going to beat me. So I went and lay down, spread my little legs out in front of me, put the leaf out in front, wrapped the sticks, and made a belt for my doll with the spikes instead of pins. My mother, Theodosia, thought I was lost because I was just a little kid, and she couldn’t find me. So she was calling me: “Jesus, Jesus, where are you?”
My mother found me and saw me trying to make the lace. I was scared because I’d stolen the spool, and I thought she was going to beat me. Instead, my mother—this wonderful person, a woman who was born in 1900 and died in 2000, a hundred years old, who never left the village ever, yet she had an education and passed on to us such a good principles—took me by the hand, went into the house, and told my father, “You need to make a “kousouni” (bobbin lace pillow) for the girl.”
“Why, Theodosia,?” he asked.
“We have to make her a “kousouni” so she can start making kopaneli lace.”
After that, I finished elementary school and went to high school. I bought my first school apron (we had to wear an apron with a white collar) with money I earned from making doilies. I made them by taking my “kousouni” in my arms when I went to the field to watch the sheep. I sat in the field and made lace. In the seventh grade, I also bought my school books and my first pen with the money I made from the doilies I made in the summer. Merchants came from Athens and collected the lace and sold it there.
I finished high school and took my exams in Chania. I then enrolled in the Ariadne School of Home Economics. I finished school and got my degree. Joy! In 1957, I moved to Athens.
Then I met my husband, Stelios, and I was appointed to a government position in 1973. I was appointed to Leonidio of Kynourias. We went to Tripoli so I could sign the contract for the position. In 1974, we got married. I was in love. I couldn’t leave Stelios. Impossible! He said, “Do whatever you want to do. You’re free to keep your job if you wish. I’ll come when I go to the Peloponnese, you come to see me, and so on.” “No,” I said, “I don’t want to, I’m fine.” I didn’t accept the government position, and the job was withdrawn.
We started our life very, very well. But I could see that in the village, Chinese linens were starting to be imported. They were coming from abroad. I didn’t like that at all. And bobbin lace was losing popularity; people didn’t value it as much. Because I was educated with the money I made from weaving, through the value of this art, I didn’t want it to be lost. So what did I think? I decided to go ask for a place to teach bobbin lace in Athens.
I thought I’d start by going to ERT1 (national tv station). I didn’t have any connections there, and I knew no one. What should I do? What should I do? I was watching ERT1, and I was watching Mylonas, who had a show, The Traditional Songs. I thought to myself, “I’m going to go there.” So I went to the gate of ERT and knocked, and they asked me: “Where are you going?”
I said, “To Mr. Mylonas.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“Yes.”
He let Stelios and me pass, and we went in. Mr. Mylonas was in office number one. I knocked on the door, the door opened, and his secretary was sitting in front. She said to me: “What do you want? Do you have an appointment?”
Before she could say anything, I said to Mr. Mylonas, “Excuse me very much. To tell you the truth I don’t have an appointment. I told a lie to come in and ask a favor.”
“What do you want?” he asked. I said, “I have an art, I want to promote it, I want to teach it. I don’t have people to help me or go anywhere. I ask for two or three minutes on television for people to see me and hear my story. Maybe someone wants to come and learn it.” He replied: “Wait.”
“OK, I’ll wait,” I said. I wasn’t leaving now no matter what.
“We’ll call you on the phone.” I wrote my phone number down. The next day, I got a call, and he said: “Saturday at noon, be here. You’re going to be on Mrs. Sakakou’s show.” Kelly Sakakou. I was so excited! I took with me a handmade tablecloth and some other bobbin-lace items. We made a corner with all this stuff. We sat down, and I went live, asking people if anyone wanted to learn bobbin lace, but nobody called me. Nobody called. So nothing happened from ERT; nothing came out of that show. Bless those people, but nobody was interested.
I read the newspaper, and I saw that the Angeliki Hadjimichali studios were offering classes. So I went. I talked to a teacher, Mrs. Demetra, and I said that I know this art, and I want to show it to the women. She got up, God bless her, and she said to me: “There are no students interested in kopaneli!”
I said, “Excuse me” and left. As I going down the stairs, a woman came up next to me. “My good lady,” she said. “My good lady. I want to learn kopaneli, but come upstairs to the headmistress. Come in the morning.”
Monday morning I was there! I told her my thoughts, and she said “OK!” She got me an appointment at the Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Athens, 50 Akademias Street.
I started in February, 1982, and left in 2012. Thirty years I taught kopaneli there. They weren’t called classes there—they were seminars. They were six-month seminars. Kopaneli, my dear ladies and gentlemen, is not learned in six months. It takes years to learn kopaneli.
One of my students at that time—she has passed away now—Zoe Terlexis, told me: “Listen, Christina, we’ll make an association, and the women will come there.” “And how are we going to make the association? We have nothing,” I asked. “Don’t worry!” she said: “All the expenses will be mine.”
I gathered the people I knew would support me. There really are women from that time who are still board members. We got the women together and made the bylaws. We had to put a name on the bylaws before we gave them to the accountant, so we decided to meet at a taverna to come up with a name for the association. I suggested we should name it Penelope or Cleo, and so on. But then the other women, who had already come to an agreement without me, spoke up and said, “Who did we learn bobbin lace from? From Mrs. Christina! So the club will be called Christina.” I was very, very moved.
Kopaneli—the Cretan kopaneli—was no longer known. It has a kinship as we see it with the Russian kopeli. I don’t know how it came down to Crete. I know that in 1908, Olga—Queen Olga—came down to Korakies, and she saw that the nuns were poor. But they had a loom, they had gardens, and they did whatever they could to survive. She took a nun, Minodora Athanasaki, and brought her to Athens. Then there was a school here with 300 pupils that the queen had at that time, and Minodora learned kopaneli. She then returned to Crete, to Korakies, and in this monastery, there were seven nuns from my village, from Gavalochori. So the root of the Cretan kopaneli is considered to be Gavalochori.
Debbie Koutsika registered us in 1994 with the World Lace Organization (OIDFA), based in France, and from there on we started going to world conferences. I must tell you that we have attended 12 conferences, we have gone abroad, and we have been very much recognized.
I must say that all my progress and all my creations over all these years I owe to the support of my husband. We did not have children. When we learned that there would be no children, we turned the page and said that we would live as God wanted us to live, and that’s really how it happened. All those conferences I told you about: He sent me with all his love, with all his soul.
I am very, very happy because the classes I was teaching at Hadjimihali are still going, and I’m still going to the club to this day. Stelios will never tell me not to go. He tells me, “Go, get up and go. If you’re well, go. Is it Thursday? Go, go, do your lesson. Just don’t be late.” His only words now are, “Just don’t be late.” If my husband were bothered by me going to class, I would enjoy my peace and quiet and my house, but I would be unhappy, whereas now I am happy. I am full, I am content, and that is great. Great value in life to say you are full. I did what I wanted to do, and he understood me.
I had a dream, and I believe I achieved it. I had a dream. I know I am leaving behind knowledge of kopaneli so that it remains. It’s history, it’s art, it must stay. Let the children see it and learn it.
This is the art I’ve loved since I was a little girl, and it’s given me life. It gave me value. Art gave me value. That’s what I need to emphasize. If I hadn’t made this art, I’d be nothing. Do you understand that? But I found the right person, and he helped me, and I was able to make all this happen. I can’t say anything else.
Story by: Καθε Μια Ιστορία
The following video features the 24 Venetian wells, which were built in the 15th or 16th centuries and lie one kilometer (half a mile) outside of the center of Gavalochori. The video was filmed by Φοίβος -Visit Crete in 2019 following a misguided attempt to improve visitors’ experience at the site with the installation of lighting, electricity, and formal pathways. Those “improvements” have since been removed.
This video was created by the Municipality of Apokoronas, and it provides an overview of the key sites of the village. Even if you don’t speak Greek, you will be able to enjoy the images of Gavalochori.
In the next video, Φοίβος – Visit Crete provides a view of Gavalochori from above using drone images. Much of the video features the forest that is adjacent to Gavalochori, but be patient. Images of the village will eventually appear.
Το Παραδοσιακό Χωριό Γαβαλοχωρίου (The Traditional Village of Gavalochori) is an unpublished manuscript written in 1969 by prominent Gavalochori resident Vasileios Fronimakis. It contains rich information about the history of Gavalochori, including details about its geographic location, its architecture, its olive industry, the village’s water and electricity systems, the old school, the churches in the area, the German occupation during World War II, and the practices that marked various holidays. The typewritten document was loaned to us so that it could be scanned and made available to the public via this website by his niece, Anastasia Fronimaki.
We have not yet received permission to include some of the sources presented above. In all of the cases that commonly require permission, we tried repeatedly to obtain consent, but the owners or publishers of the sources did not respond to our requests. In the case of the book Γαβαλοχώρι Αποκορώνου: Η Ταυτότητά Του (Gavalochori–Apokoronas: Its Identity), we could find no information about the author or the publisher, so we were unable to contact anyone to request permission to include the book here.
