The Mansion of Kallitsa
The Mansion of Kallitsa
In 1834, Pashley passed through here and was hosted by the “Provost Captain Alexandrakis”, who told him the following story: During the revolution of 1821, the Turks of Central Crete and the Turkish-Egyptian army killed the unarmed Christians and captured women and children. Before the Turkish-Egyptians arrived at Apodoulou, Alexandrakis and the other men of the village escaped to Psiloritis for them to survive. However, he could not take his children, Kallitsa and Giannis, and left them with a woman with three children of her own in a hut. The Turco-Egyptians passed through, found them, and took them all as slaves. Alexandrakis heard that they were sold to Egypt, as were many other children from Lasithi.
In 1829 an English lord, accompanied by his wife and white servants came to Apodoulou and asked for Alexandrakis. Kallitsa, known as a slave in Egypt, came to see her parents, who did not forget them, even though she was the wife of an English lord, John Hein. His father, who lived in Egypt, had bought Kallitsa and brought her up in his house and in the end married her to his son because she was beautiful and nice.
Pashley met Lord John Hein and Kallitsa in Apodoulou in 1834 and they went out together to Psiloritis. Therefore, the story of Kallitsa, heard by them, is the most real one.
The beauty and the climate of Apodoulou enchanted Haiin so he built a beautiful mansion to spend his holidays there, the so-called Frankish konaki.