Stavrochori () is an historic village of eastern

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. It belonged to the former province of

Sitia Sitia (Latin language, Latin and Italian language, Italian) or Siteia (, ) is a port town and a municipality in Lasithi, Crete, Greece. The town has 11,166 inhabitants and the municipality has 20,438 (2021). It lies east of Agios Nikolaos, Cre ...

and later to the former

Makry Gialos Makry Gialos () is a former municipality in Lasithi, Crete, Greece, with a population 2,589 in 2021. It is located on the south-east coast of Crete. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Ierapetra, of which it is a ...

municipality. Today it is part of

Ierapetra Ierapetra (; ancient name: ) is a Greece, Greek city and municipality located on the southeast coast of Crete. History The town of Ierapetra (in the local dialect: Γεράπετρο ''Gerapetro'') is located on the southeast coast of Crete, sit ...

municipality. It is located in a wooded valley, 29 kilometers north east from

and 35 kilometers southwest from

. Once it was the most populous village of the region and the administrative center of the surrounding settlements. Since the last 30 years, the majority of its population has moved to the seaside settlement of Koutsouras, 7 kilometers to the south. Stavrochori is a traditional village with many sights. It is also the birthplace of Ioannis Papachatzakis or "Stravogiannios", a violinist, who lived and died in

. He was one of the most important Cretan traditional organ players of the last century.

References

Further reading