Minoan Villa of Nerokourou

From1977 to 1982 a Greek-Italian excavation was conducted at the modern village Nerokourou, a little outside the city of Chania. A large settlement (organized in neighbourhoods) was excavated that was founded at the end of the Middle Minoan period.

The “House I” of the settlement is visitable. It has the architectural style of a Minoan villa. The House I follows the “palatial style”, with paved floors, a "polythyro" (multi-door) and an upper floor. From the construction of the building and from the pottery it can be concluded that there were two building stages, which probably belong to the Middle Minoan III/Late Minoan I period (1600 B.C.).

East of House Ι a square building was found, with a floor of hydraulic cement and a small cistern with walls of thick hydraulic cement. The whole building resembles a "lenos" (a trough), which probably did not belong to the Minoan building complex. Moreover, at the north-western edge of the excavation, part of a stone-paved path was found, with very small irregularly-shaped stones, leading to another direction and not to the walls of the building.

The second House was found 300m. east of the House I, near the conjunction of the new national road and the community road to Nerokourou. It is a part of a building with two storerooms and a paved floor, dating back from the same time as the House I.

A hole was found at the site, containing pottery of the early Minoan period. Building remains of the late Neolithic period were discovered during a rescue excavation. Apart from the Minoan complex, other antiquities of various times (Minoan, Classic, Hellenistic, Roman and Paleochristian) have also been spotted and excavated in the greater area of Nerokourou.