The site of Polyrrinia, some 16 km south of Kissamos, is a popular tourist destination, combining a picturesque traditional village with the remains of an ancient city which are under active excavation. It is reached by a road which winds up from Kissamos through a succession of small villages and is generally in poor condition, although it was announced earlier this year that the contract has been signed for upgrading the road at a cost of €1.5 million.

The archaeological site is reached via a sharp left-hand turn upwards just before the entrance to Polyrrinia village, from which a winding road leads up to a small plateau with parking for a few cars and a restaurant. The panoramic view takes in the whole of Kissamos Bay, and is in itself worth the visit. From there a track leads up to a 19^th century stone church and then on towards the Acropolis, with a stiff climb, reportedly of about 20 minutes, to the top.

Polyrrinia is also the home of a rare endemic plant- the wild carnation – which is a subject of interest to biologists, who have been taking steps for its preservation. A reporter from the Haniotika Nea recently visited the site and interviewed a local resident with knowledge of the plant:

In clefts in rocks, on steep hillsides, on stony ground, on the rocky mass of Polyrrinia in Kissamos we find the wild carnation Dianthus xylorrhizus, known as “viola” to the locals. One of the rare plants which grow exclusively in this particular area, it has been the subject of study in recent years by biologists and other scientists.

In company with 74-year-old Giannis Sfakianakis we walk up the track towards the archaeological site. At one point he stops and shows us a cluster of plants with abundant flowers. “This one is white and you can see the other one further on is a brownish pink. These carnations here are in full flower while the others are almost over. They grow on the rocks here and their flowering season is no more than 15 days. The archaeologist Stavroula Markoulaki told us it was a rare plant back in 1992. We had seen it around here but we didn’t know that it was disappearing and that it was found only here,” Mr Sfakianakis tells us.

We continue on our way and he shows us a large rock. “There was a carnation on top of it maybe 50 years ago. Big and bushy, when it died off the seeds produced other flowers,” he says. We ask him how the plant was saved in this area: “Modesty forbids … but it was saved thanks to me. Because of the terrain it was difficult for the goats and sheep to graze here, and I kept them away from it and as a result this population of the plant was preserved. It was kept through the lack of overgrazing in this area,” he replies.

The flowering season for wild carnations is the end of May to the beginning of June, depending on the rains. “This year, since the rain was late, the wild carnations flowered earlier. They remain in flower for 15 to 20 days and then die off,” Mr Sfakianakis says. The local community has adopted the plant, helping in its preservation. “Now we have learned about it we … take care of it so it won’t disappear. It needs to be preserved at all costs. The Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH) also gave some plants and some residents planted them among the rocks and in other places where they won’t be lost. It’s something good for our village,” he says.

He takes us to an area which has been fenced off by MAICH and another place where new plants have been planted. “Apart from being an archaeological paradise, Polyrrinia is a monument of nature because of the gorge, and it’s a botanical paradise with many unusual plants. We also have tulips and some flowers which were used by the ancients to paint their clay objects and vessels. Up on the acropolis there were plants which they used for various illnesses, a kind of cypress and the hemlock, which was the source of the well-known poison,” Mr Sfakianakis concluded.

The viola

“The wild carnation of Polyrrinia, which the locals call ‘viola’, was discovered by the famous German botanist and director of the Botanic Garden in Athens, Theodor von Heldreich, on 16th June 1846, at the archaeological site of Polyrrinia, where it grows in cracks in limestone rocks. It was described by him in 1849 in collaboration with the Swiss botanist Pierre Edmond Boissier. It was also found by a team of botanists at Mount Manna at Platanos in Kissamos in 1982, but the location has not been verified since then,” Michalis Horeftakis, a biologist in the Unit for the Preservation of Mediterranean Plants at MAICH, told Haniotika Nea.

According to Mr Horeftakis, “the plant is endemic in the nomos of Chania, and in particular in the municipality of Kissamos where it exists only at Polyrrinia and on Mount Manna and nowhere else in the world. Such a rare plant, whose worldwide population is restricted to such a small area, requires special attention and protection.”

The carnation of Polyrrinia has been included among other plants in a research programme for developing methods of protection for threatened plant species in Crete, carried out by the Unit for the Preservation of Mediterranean Plants at MAICH. Measures for preserving the plants both within and outside their natural environment have included the collection of seeds and their storage in the Seed Bank at MAICH.

“This supplementary method of preservation outside the natural environment safeguards the genetic stock of the plant in the case of destruction of its natural population. In addition, protocols for the germination of the plant have been developed. Also, with the permission of the Chania Ephorate of Antiquities, a total of 25 metres of fencing have been installed and information signs erected. Experimental plantings have been carried out within the fenced area,” Mr Horeftakis said.

Further information about the programme can be found on the MAICH website at http://diatirisi-chloridas-kritis.maich.gr/.
(Haniotika Nea, 03/06/23)

Ancient Polyrrinia

Ancient Polyrrinia was one of the most important cities of Crete during the Hellenistic and Roman period, and was the traditional opponent of neighbouring Falassarna. The name means “many sheep”, an indication of its wealth in a pastoral-based economy. It was fortified with walls and towers, some remnants of which remain. On the hill above the site there are the remains of an ancient Acropolis and a Byzantine fort.
The city’s houses were cut into the rock and had built façades, although only the rock-cut parts now remain. They also had cisterns and water was supplied through an aqueduct, which is still functioning. On the way up to the Acropolis is the Church of the Holy Fathers, built at the end of the 19th century with ancient stones and inscriptions dating from the 3rd to the 1st centuries BC; the remains of an ancient sanctuary are alongside it.