Turkish Towers (Koules)
During the Cretan Revolution of 1866-1869, the Ottoman Empire was forced to send several pashas in Crete, but the effort proved fruitless. The latest Pasha sent to the island was Avni Pasha, who faced the continuing resistance of the Cretans and decided to change his operational tactics.
Thus, the measures he took were:
- He provided political protection to those who declared allegiance to the muftis.
- The Turkish fleet ruled the northern coast of Crete, so as to stop supplies coming from Greece.
- Put a price on the Cretan rebels, with 500 ottoman pounds each.
- He settled Kurds and Circassians to the island, in order to strengthen the Muslim population.
- He designed an entire system of large and small towers (called Koules) in prominent locations throughout Crete, in order to fully control the island.
Specifically, Crete was divided into five provinces, the governors of which undertook the construction of Koules. The Koules were built on high hills, crossroads, ports, passages and their guards spied the rebels and the transporting Christians. They intercommunicated (with fanfare or fire) in case of an emergency and delivered the alert message serially to the main camp (called Kiesle). The effectiveness of Koules was devastating for the Cretans, as they could no longer easily intercommunicate.
The Cretans reacted actively during the erection of the towers, harassing the builders, destroying the buildings in the evenings or destroying lime furnaces, from where the Turks supplied lime for building. Nevertheless, Avni Pasha managed to complete his project by using experienced Bulgarian and Armenian craftsmen, who until August 1868 had built more than 60 Koules and 2 months later this number increased to 150.
As mentioned, the Turks called these towers Koules, after the Turkish Koule. The only difference between them and the rest towers of the island is that Koules were built by the state, rather than by private feudal lords and onwers (mainly Venetian).
The Cretans, while trying to free themselves, destroyed several Koules, many of which do not currently exist. However, dozens of areas on Crete have relevant place names (koule or pirgos (tower)), that implies the former existence of towers. Due to the large number of the Koules, here we will not deal with all of them, but a few that still exist.
The Turks built several Towers in the Prefecture of Heraklion, mainly in the plain of Messara, but also in the other passages of the county. Indeed, the area of Messara was a strongly guarded area. The passages leading to it were all fortified with series of towers, so that Messara could not communicate with the neighboring areas.
The Isthmus of Ierapetra, from Pahia Ammos to Ierapetra city, was a very important key passage in Lasithi prefecture. The fortification of this passage thus controlled the relations of the provinces of Mirabello and Ierapetra, while isolated the province of Sitia. Thus, the Turks built the Koules of Pahia Ammos, Vasiliki, Episkopi and Kentri.