Gavalochori, also spelled Gavalohori (Greek: Γαβαλοχώρι), is a 1000-year-old village located in the northwestern part of the island of Crete, Greece.

[1] Gavalochori is a historic working village and is home to twelve churches, two squares, two tavernas, a kafeneio (coffee shop/pub), a bakery, two markets, an artisan shop, a hair salon, a stone-cutting business, a taxi service, and a civil engineering office.

[3] The origin story that is often told about Gavalochori is that the village was established when the Byzantine emperor Alexios Komnenos in Constantinople sent 12 nobles to Crete at the turn of the 12th century to prevent an anticipated revolt against him.

It was probably constructed to provide the powerful Cretan landowners, including the Gavalas family, with a legal basis for the maintenance of their properties after the Venetians conquered the island.

As documents are discovered and analyzed, earlier periods in Gavalochori's history will benefit from a more comprehensive telling of the story of the village.

[7] A destructive rain fell on Gavalochori in 1862, and torrents of water rushed through the village, destroying houses and other property and drowning a number of residents.

Gavalochori residents faced a particularly difficult period of unwanted invasion when, during World War II, German soldiers occupied the village.

[10] The Germans also ordered the adult men of Gavalochori and surrounding villages to build fortifications at the entrance to nearby Souda Bay.

[11] Life in Gavalochori remained fairly unchanged until the late 1960s, when electricity and a municipal water system were brought to the village.

[12] Before that, oil lamps were used to light interior spaces, and the houses had cisterns, typically made of stone, that stored rainwater.

In the past, the making of silk; stone cutting; tanning leather; and the growing of wheat, cotton, sesame, carobs, and figs were major economic drivers of the village,[13] but they are no longer significant commercial activities in Gavalochori.

Gavalochori has been designated by the Ministry of Culture as a historically preserved place with a landscape of particular natural beauty as well as a site of popular architecture without significant modern alterations.

Its power waxed and waned through the years, but at one time, the city had its own mint and controlled ports on both the north and south coasts of Crete.

In addition, large musical events are presented several times a year in the parking lot next to the old elementary school.

Outside the church, an effigy of Judas is tied atop a pyre of tree branches that has been prepared in the days leading up to the Saturday service.

Following the burning of Judas, everyone moves to the main square, where members of the Cultural Association of Gavalochori serve raki, wine, and hard-boiled eggs dyed bright red to represent the blood of Christ.

[25] Until the end of the 19th century and even as late as 1950 on Crete, silk was produced at home by women who fed the leaves of the local mulberry trees to silkworms.

Born in 1832 in Agios Pavlos, a part of Gavalochori, he began his revolutionary activity in 1858 and participated in the Cretan revolutions of 1866 and 1878.

Papadakis served in various political positions as Crete transitioned from Turkish rule to becoming an autonomous state and then to unification with Greece.

[33] Katerina Angelopoulou, who was born in Gavalochori, was the mother of Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos, a filmmaker, screenwriter, and film producer.