<The village of Vlacheronitissa or Vlaheronitissa on Crete
Vlacheronitissa is a village on the northeast coast of Crete, on the road from Kolimbari to Chania, close to Maleme. It's tourist area with lots of new buildings, including this church. The modern buildings in the area were mainly put there to accommodate all the people that want to visit the long sandy beaches in the area.
The rest of Vlacheronitissa is a more sleepy place where people live from the agriculture.
First of all there is a late Minoan tomb to see (1400 - 1100 B.C.) in Vlacheronitissa. This tomb is located at the end of a path. The tomb can be found by following the brown signs that point to most of the interesting antiquities in Crete. The tomb stones are quite large and the tomb is almost completely intact, which of course is very unusual after such a long time.
Many battles took place in this area during World War II because the airport of Crete was situated in Maleme. This is the place where the German paratroopers started their attack on Crete in May 1941 and where many German soldiers were killed. This invasion is called "The Battle of Crete". The paratroopers that did not fall dead on a cliff, and landed in a tree or on the ground, were massacred by the locals, of which many had guns, knifes and all sorts of weapons (having a gun was quite common in Crete at this time). In Vlacheronitissa over 4000 over these German soldiers - almost all of them very young men - lay buried at an impressive war cemetery which overlooks the Gulf of Chania and the village of Maleme. On each grave stone there are two names and these stones are surrounded by flowers. The plants that are here are green almost the whole year. It is a really impressive place to have a look at and have a good think. Net to the was cemetery is a taverna with a collection of old weapons and all sorts of memmorabilia of World war II. At the entrance of the War cemetery there is a small sort of an info kiosk with lots of information and eplanation about the "Battle of Crete".
