Kalo Nero

By car:

From the central road Sitia - Makrygialos - Ierapetra after passing by Lithines village and reaching the sea, you will turn left towards Lagkadas. The village of Kalo Nero is about 2km after Lagkadas.

The attributed denomination of 'Kalo Nero' ('Good Water') is due rather to the medicinal properties of the water in the region than to its use as drinking water.

"KALON NERON, a location existing a little west of the Kapsa monastery, where the janissary, Tzinalis, herded his animals."

This is how Kalo Nero is referred to in a passage of a tale about the area, by E. Aggelakis, in his "Memoirs from 1836 to 1906", where Captain Karandonis, a resident of Ziros, born in 1796, killed the janissary, Tzinalis, in a cave of Kalo Nero which was called Elliniko.

In this area, especially around the Panagia (Virgin Mary) of Kalo Nero, residents of the Perivolakia district created makeshift shelters to use as housing facilities when they brought their flocks from Pervolakia.

Most of the residents who lived in 'Kato' ('Lower') Pervolakia moved to Kalo Nero after 1980.

A common characteristic of both villages, Kalo Nero and Lower Perivolakia, is that they have not been developed for tourism purposes and they offer one the chance to enjoy a calm rural environment, an element appreciated by a great number of foreigners, who, for this reason, are buying homes both in Kalo Nero and in Perivolakia.

In summer the region fills up with 'Kalonerites' (people originating from Kalo Nero) living in Athens.

Translated and edited by: Yallou