Volirakis Stelios
Astron Hotel
Tel/Fax 0030 28420 26229/24939
Ierapetra, Creta, Greece
contact at chrisi-island.gr

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The first information about the island come from travellers of Crete. Stasiasmus mentions that "... Ierapetra has an island named Chrissi which has a port and water...".Buondelmonti (in 1415) mentions that Chrissi is "...a flat and almost uncultivated island, beautiful, with hermits and lentisks and cedars...".Raulin after his tour in Crete in 1847 mentions that "...they were sending flocks and salt-pans existed there until 1840..."

The last ages Chrissi is practically uninhabited, while a long time ago there were small settlements. At the west and east part of the island, there are interspersed shells, which show that activity existed there from the Minoan era. The man's coexistance with the natural environment of the island, to the point it existed was relatively friendly so that's why the natural functions have been kept until today. To the northwest there is the church of Saint- Nikolas, built probably the 13th century. In the northeast of the church and near the coast there is an old salt-pan and the only island's house built on ancient facilities which include a small construction (Spilio) and a small break-water. In the wider region there are remains of big right- angled lands limited with short- stonebuilt walls. In the south and southwest of Saint -Nikolas there are wells and some sculptured graves.The biggest of them is of Roman date.

. In the recent years, Chrissi offered and continues to offer lee (ward)places to the area's fishermen in order to take the fishes off their fishing-nets and get rest.Quite a few people were going to the island to gather weeds and wild artichokes.The shepherds of the opposite coast used to transfer sheep there and to the Smallisland during the winter, while partridges, hares and rabbits were imported. The owners of the restaurants which existed in the island the old days but also several summer visitors planted plants' species which did not exist in the island such as the bouzi, the athanatos, the armiriki and others. A few decades ago some naturists begun to camp on the island, building unprepared lodgings below the cedars and they used to stay for a few weeks or even months. Gradually, as the summer visitors increased, the consequences begun to be remarkable. Remains of destroyed lodgings and various rubbish begun to be accumulated under the bushes. Into the positions where the summer visitors chose for camping they settled the place by lopping away the cedars. The sand drifted away and the roots were revealed, which afterwards they cut in order not to obstruct. There are quite a few trees in which the lack of sand exceeds the 1metre in depth.