Skoulas in Anogia

I think about old age and how I will spend it
I learned from Eglenze and how I will forget him

Reaching Anemia, her famous village Crete at the roots of Psiloritis ,, in your right hand tucked between two mulberries you will find the cafe of Gryli with the title "Syntagma Square", perhaps the oldest cafe in the village.

The interior is dominated by two large photos of the coffee maker Michalou Skoula - one taken forty years ago and the other relatively recently - and around them many small photos and excerpts from newspapers that refer to the history of the Skoula family and the Anogia.

Why in heroic Anogia the youth, the incompatibility with slavery and the participation of the people of Anogia in every revolutionary movement, had the result due to the retaliation to loot and set fire to the village in 1822 by Sherif Pasha and in 1867 by Omer Pasha. During the Occupation, when Anogia was the core of the National Resistance in Crete, on the occasion of the abduction of General Kraipe in August 1944, the order was given to level the village and to execute all the men who would be there. The houses with dynamite were blown up, set on fire and about 800 houses were reduced to rubble, while 6 women were burned, 8 men were executed and 80 elderly people were arrested.

All these stories and the participation of the Skoulades family in the revolutions and on the altar of blood are imprinted on the walls.

Outside in the yard and in the thick shade of a mulberry tree, for years old people from Anogia, straight, masculine, in black shirts, with mustaches and typical headscarves chatting while drinking their raki.

Unfortunately the Michalos - brother of Vassilis, known in the Panhellenic mantinador Σκουλα - who for decades served, cared for, helped his wife Mrs. Irene - a modern heroine - and did not miss the opportunity to be photographed, sing or tell his stories to his clients, at the age of 85, in 2014 left for heaven . We miss him.