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Classical period

The (ancient) history of Nikiti remains in it's largest part unknown and without being researched. In the past, various references to the existence of pre-historic colonies in our area (Vetryno, Paliokastello, Kastri) and of colonies in the classical years have been made. At any rate, our wish being even that strong, we could surely hold Nikiti for a relic of the ancient town "Galypsos". Herodotus (Z 122) places Galypsos between Toroni and Sermyli. Galypsos fought in the Pelloponician war against Sparta and after the war the town gave money to the Athenean alliance. According to today's knowledge ancient Galypso was founded 5-6 km from Nikiti village. The ancient historians Plinios and Pombonios place also the town Physkella somewhere between Toroni and Sermyli, though without a precise time limitation.

Christian and Byzantine period

Since 1971 some findings in areas near the village indicate old-christian settlements. In Agios Georgios an old-christian temple has been found which shows that in this area there had been an important civilisation. Similiar settlements of the same period have been marked (1972) also in Elia.
Interesting hints for the rise of Nikiti's area during the Byzantine-era's are given by five census-acts of the Xenophon monastery in the years 1300 - 1338. In accordance to these census-acts two settlements have known great improvements in this era: Psalida in the area we now know as the traditional settlement of Nikiti village and Agios Phokas in the same area.

Turkish occupation period

Tradition keeps alive elements of our area since the end of the 16th century. During this period monks of the Lavrion monastery (Monastery of Agia Lavra) had settled down in the area now taken over by the traditional settlement of Nikiti and occupied themselves in stockfarming. Also monks of various other Monasteries of Mount Athos came to this area.
Two buildings referring to this era give us useful documents for the history of the place. One is the church which is named today "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin". The church of "The Assumption" was built by the monks of the area in the 13th and 14th century, it is not known to which saint it was dedicated at that time. Almost twice as big (width) as the church of today it was a sheer work-of-art.

The monks had painted the walls with representations of the Holy Book and with Icons of the Saints really fantastic. Especially the Icon of "The Apocalypse" in the front of the church was destroyed lately due to the careless construction of the shelter. The rest of the wall-paintings were destroyed little-by-little due to the absolute lack of protection. Only one half-destroyed wall-painting in the southern outer-side of the church picturing "Mary the Egyptian and Akyla" was left behind and until its complete dissolution will remind us of the old master-pieces of the monks.
The second monastery building was probably the residence of the monks in "Tzironi". Relics of this building can be still remembered by the oldest among the villagers. On the opposite mountain sides according to traditions, the monks used to keep their goats and sheep.

Pirates...

At the same period near the sea, far away from the place of the monk's residence there were three small villages, one very close to the other. The biggest among them was built in the place called "Nikitas" in Elia, the second in Kastri and the third in Agios Georgios. The villagers occupations were fishing and stock-farming - they had almost no relation to the monks of the area.
Many times the villagers had experienced pirates assaults that created big problems for them. The pirates used to burn down the houses, destroy the agriculture, slaughter the animals of the villagers who lived in their fear. This went on for a time and in the end the inhabitants slowly abandoned their villages which at a time were absolutely deserted. But after long years of roaming their selfpreservation instict drove them to the area of the Lavrion monastery, as far away from the sea as possible, where they could stay hidden away from the pirates.

That is where they brought whatever was left of their old homes. They started building and cultivating the earth and finding new ways of supporting themselves. So that is how the new villages construction started, in the place where today are the left-overs of the traditional settlement of Nikiti.
Nobody knows if any problems had arisen between the "settlement" of the "newcomers" of this area and the monks. The fact is that around 1600 A.D (to be more precise, for some people in 1613,for others in 1614...) the village started improving and that is how our village Nikiti was bound to exist.
The villagers, according to the legend, named their village after the biggest of the three villages which had been abandoned after the pirates assaults. So the first name of the village might have been "Nikitas". By the name "Nikiti" the village is mentioned for the first time after 1700A.D. According to another explanation the name of the village came from the alternation of the word "Neakitos". In the censusacts of the Xenophon monastery the area where our village is built on now, was referred to as "Earth of Neakitos".
The villagers, not more than 500, were anxious to adapt to a new way of life in their new village. The newly founded settlement started to take up the form of a real village, to get bigger and to improve.

Revolution

In 1821 (the year of Hellenic revolution for liberation from the Turkish occupation) Nikiti had almost 700 inhabitants and was one of the first villages to rise the flag of revolution against the Turks. Nikitians fought with self-sacrifice hand-in-hand with the other revolutionaries - and for this reason, after the unsuccessful ending of the uprising, the Turks burnt down the defenceless village. That year many of Nikiti's inhabitants had to abandon their destroyed homes and together with other Chalkidiki-villagers, especially from Kassandra, they settled down in Northern Sporades, in Evia and in other islands of the Northern Aegean Sea. Even today descendants of Nikiti-people who had left their village after the great disaster of 1821 are still living in those parts.

After the disaster (and the after all successful liberation from turkish occupation) a new era of recreation follows, the inhabitants rebuild their destroyed houses and create new constructions for the village. In 1867, following the exhortation of the at-the-time Bishop of Kassandra K. Chrysanthos, the Nikitians built the magnificent temple of St. Nikitas (although the Nikitians called their city's protector St. Nikitas after the name of their village and not the other-way-round, as many still do believe in the village ). Approximately in the same place where the church was built in earlier times had been a tall tower, where the Turk-soldiers passing through the area used to stay overnight. In 1870 the public school was built too, exactly behind the southern part of the church.
In 1900, three centuries after the settlement of the first inhabitants, Nikiti with it's 1000 inhabitants (according to data taken from a newspaper of that time) was a well-organised community.
From 1900 till 1910 the village started to grow slowly to the south (to the sea). Some few houses built in this ten years period were the "pioneers" of a methodical expansion of our village, till then limited to a small area compared to it's population.

After the liberation

In 1920 Nikiti with its 1335 inhabitants looked the same as it did in 1910. The area of the mills stayed uninhabited while the area along the beach at this time didn't look as monotonous as it used to look years before. The first building on the beach was a hurriedly made shed. In front of this shed the ship from Thessaloniki to Kavala passed weekly, supplying salesmen and inhabitants with commodities from the big city.

After the earthquake of 1932 which destroyed many old houses of the village the rebuilding and quick expansion of Nikiti continued in the 1930s. After 1950 the village has grown rapidly towards the sea. Within a few years the area along the road leading to the sea has been built up as well as the area along the beach for a distance of one kilometer and other areas.
Today the main road coming from Thessaloniki and leading around the Sithonia penisula divides Nikiti into the "old village-palio chorio" going to the mountains, and the newer part until the sea.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Text taken from: The old Nikiti" by Yannis D. Kanatas (editing by U.Green)
Title photo by courtesy of www.macedonian-heritage.gr

If you would like to have extra information or want to reserve an accommodation
send e-mail to :
Christos Zafeiroudis & Ute Green
Zafeiroudis Tourist Center: nikitireserv@yahoo.gr
or call us:
(0030) 6974 830 330 (Christos-mobile)
(0030) 6979 956051 (Ute-mobile)

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