Resisting the Pirates
Balos
and Pefkos – Neohori
In
medieval times, all the villages of the Amfilissos River
that could be seen from the sea were at risk of attack from
pirates.
Every
time that the sails of the pirate ships appeared on the
horizon, smoke was generated from a beacon at Koumeika.
Immediately, all the people in the villages of the
Amfilissos River started to move to a fortified rock in
Neochori called Kastraki (Castle Rock). Two specially
constructed wide tracks – one from Pefkos, one from Balos,
led to the Castle Rock. (Part of one of these tracks can be
seen today, below the school at Neochori).
Kastraki
(Castle rock)
When
pirates were spotted, these wide roads were used to
transfer many people, together with their animals and food,
to the Castle Rock, where a secret tunnel led to the Church
of Aghios Taxiarchis (Angel Protector – officer of the
angels) at Neochori, arriving under the alter.
The church would appear completely closed up – barricaded
against the pirates and empty, But in fact the church would
be full of people arriving by the tunnel and keeping silent
while the pirates were around. So the pirates were left to
vandalize the houses in the villages but they could not
kill the inhabitants or steal the treasures in the church
of Aghios Taxiarchis.
Church
of Aghios Taxiarchis, Neochori
This church is still today fortified like a castle. It had
sockets built into its outside walls, in which enormous
beeswax candles could be inserted, and lit as protection
against diseases and unbelievers, especially pirates from
Malta, Turkey, Tunisia and the Barbary Coast.
Along
the road from Balos to Koumeika was a monastery that was
burned by pirates in the 14-15th century. When the monks
knew that the pirates were coming, they placed the
ornaments and treasures from the monastery in a well that
they had dug for this purpose and, in this way, saved them
from the pirates.