Kato Poros
Kato Poros in the prefecture of Rethymno is a village located approximately 25 km southwest of the city of Rethymno on the northeastern slope of the Azonas Mountain, near Argyroupolis.
Built at an altitude of 260 meters with about 60 permanent residents, Kato Poros was named after the rutty part of the watercourse of the rivers and the pores at the openings leading to Kollita Gorges, but also the lowering (Poros) of the two mountains.
The verdant village among the sources and plants, such as dictamus (Cretan marjoram) or erontas-atitamos, has been mentioned since the Venetian era. The first settler was Sfakianos Chantoumogiannis, a well-known Hainis (local partisan) of this area. During the Turkish occupation deadly battles had taken place in this area, resulting in the desertion of settlements and in residents’ slaughtering (listed below), while the Turks had never lived in the village.
Among the churches of the village, the church of Agios Ioannis Theologos is the most distinguishing, an old icon-painted Byzantine church of the 11th century. The church has been renovated for the last time in 1926 with only one icon, burned on its right side, having survived the huge fire. The other churches of Kato Poros are the church of Zoodohos Pigi, the church of Panagia the Rimagmeni (Virgin Mary Ravaged) and the cavernous church of Agios Antonios in Dichalopotamo.
Near the area, there are the abandoned settlements of Nisi, Christochori and Artos. In Artos, located between the villages of Zouridi, Agios Konstantinos and Kato Poros, there are the remains of an old heroic village that had existed until 1647 and faced the wrath of the Turks for its strong resistance. The Nisi was a Byzantine settlement, which had been appearing in censuses until 1950 and used to be a fortified village, which during the revolution of Leon Kallergis in 1341, had been captured by the rebels. The Christochori, near Kato Poros and Zouridi, was inhabited around the 13th-15th centuries and was probably also destroyed in 1647 during the invasion of Hussein Pasha in Artos, while the residents who survived had settled in Zouridi.
