The Last Hainis Monument

The Monument of the Last Hainis is located in the mountainous settlement of Gonies, which is just 26 km from Herakleion. The word "hainis" comes from the Turkish word "hain", which means "deceiver" or "traitor". The statue of the hero of the Cretan Revolution, Michael Kalisperis (or Vlachos), is a monument built by the Municipality of Malevizi in order to keep the history of a great Cretan alive, a form of revolution that had become the fear and terror of the conquerors during the years of the Ottoman rule with the rich action he had developed. The statue is the work of the excellent sculptor Sotos Alexios.

Michael Kalisperis, (or Vlachos), was born in Gonies in 1822. He was the nephew of Meletios Kalisperakis, abbot of the Jerusalem Monastery of Malevizi, chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of Eastern Crete and had become the leader of the Great Cretan Church. Michael Kalisperis had become the fear and terror of the conquerors during the years of the Ottoman rule with its rich action from his teenage years. Having as a base a cave in the Goniako Gorge, he marched against the Turks every night. He had been arrested five times, and he always managed to escape.

However, the sixth time, when he was arrested after a betrayal, he was beheaded after severe torture in the current square of Nikiforos Fokas in Heraklion, on February 16th, 1857. Inside the prison, he was tied to a rope and loaded with chains of 100 "okadas", as the rhyme says:

"His tall stature is his passion

with chains one hundred "okadas" loaded ".

Michael Kalisperis' achievements were so many that there are even traditional songs that narrate them:

"His lips spoke, his sacred mouth

cut off his head so that the flesh becomes dust. "

"They see Vlachos while he stood

with his bare knife,

he twisted his moustache

with his right hand".