09/03/2020
Interesting mention of Vrachasi in the manuscript by Dawkins: The road goes on past Chersonnesos, past the market gardens of Malles [Malia], past the bridge which will be a part of the Candia –Neapolis road, past the turning to Avdou and Lasithi, and comes to a point just inland of the little port of Sisi.Here a stream comes down through a gorge and up this is the road to Vrakhasi.This path crosses the stream by a bridge with an inscription on the keystone on the south side.ItrunsΒΡΑΧΑΣΙΟΝΤΗ10ΜΑΙΟΥ1872ΥΠΟΚΙΝΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥΔΙΚΗΙΤΟΥΚΑΔΟΣΙΔΗΠΡΤΟΜΑΣΤΟΡΑΣΜΙΙThe stone is too high up to be clearly read, but in any case it seems that the bridge was built in 1872 by the governor and the builder was one Adosides.The path to Vrakhasi continues up the gorge. It passes by a “mill with a cistern” (στερνιστός μύλος).This is a device used when the water supply is scanty. Immediately above the mill an artificial pool or cistern is made: this is allowed to fill with water and when enough has accumulated to work the mill the sluice is opened and the mill works until the water is exhausted.Then the cistern is allowed to fill up again, and so on.They are not common in Crete.
Then we pass the church of St George of the pipe, so-called because a water-pipe passes by the church.To this church –I was told by Doctor Joseph Hatzidakis, the Ephor of Antiquities –sheep-stealers resort and there make vows for success.And I was told the same of the church of St Nikitas [in handwriting:also a warrior sainton a horse,cf. Cumontin JRS XXVII, 63, St George & Mithras“The Cattle-Thief”]8near Loukia in the Mesara by Dr Xanthoudidis.Then the path comes out of the gorge with its picturesque rocks and reaches the large village of Vrakhasi, in a valley full of vines and olives.In the village is the church of St John Chrysostom, dated by an inscription to 1587.It is a quite plain building of the usual type with one vault.On the south door is the inscription on the lintel.The door is nicely made with stone jambs and lintel and plain mouldings.The lintel is cracked and this makes a little difficulty in one place in each of the three lines of letterings, and the whitewash obscures a good many of the accents.The purport of the inscription is that in 1587 the ruined church of the “saint of golden speech” was rebuilt by the best of priests –though not the best of versifiers –Gregorios Phouskis.The position of the inscription on the lintel appears in Fig.1, and in Fig.2I give a facsimile sketch of the first couplet:Fig.1Inscription in three lines on lintel mouldings, very well and shapely cut.x The two date monogramsFig.2The inscription, though written in three lines, falls into four elegiac couplets, the last pentameter scanning --|--|-||--|--|-.The text is:Τα πρώην επ’ εδάφους κείμεν’ ερείπια, ώνερ,σηκού Χρυσολόγου ένθαδε απτερέωςιερέων οχ’ άριστος εαίς δαπάναις ανεγείραςτεύξατο ως οράεις τόνδε αριπρεπέα.Ει δ’ ερεείνης τούτο δαημέναι ούνομα κλητόνΓρηγόριος Φούσκης τούδε προσηγορίη.Έτους τρέχοντος χιλιοστής επτάδος άμαoγδοικοστής [sic] και τρις πεντάδος.[O man, those ruins of the church of the Manof the Golden Speechat Aptera, which formerly lay on the groundhere, the most excellent of priests, raised them at his own expense and constructed this magnificent one, as you see. If you wish to know his renowned name. it is Grigorios Fouskis. In the current year seven thousand and eighty plus three fives.] But the shortest way to Neapolis is not by Vrakhasi. At the point of the path near Sisi the direct road goes straight on and ascends the hill to the east, passes over a ridge and descends to the olive-filled valley of Neapolis.On the ridge is a row of windmills and before reaching them I have seen a settlement of wandering potters whose centre in Creteis Thrapsano in Pediada [see ch. 20].They make mainly the big pitharia[large clay pitchers] used as storage vessels.
