Milliarades, Heraklion

Milliarades (Μιλλιαράδες) Heraklion

Milliarades is a village in the province of Pediada, southeast of Embaros, at the northern foot of the Koupa hill, at 1,188 meters and 52.5 km from Heraklion. Since 1998, with the Kapodistrias Law, it has been a homonymous municipal district with one settlement and 226 inhabitants, based on the 2001 population census.

The inhabitants are engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry. Main products are oil and dittany, an aromatic plant exported abroad for distillation.

In the village are the temples of Agios Panteleimon and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Agios Georgios, Agios Mamas and Panagia in Deti or Grylous in a cave south of the village, which has frescoes that were destroyed.

Historical data

The name of the village is due to the well-known and current surname Miliaras, (Byzantine surname of the first settlers), which means the one who builds millions, ie cauldrons. Another version of the name (written in Milliarado) says that it comes from the word "apples" which in the Homeric language means sheep. This is because in the past most of the inhabitants were shepherds.

The Milliarades are not mentioned in Venetian censuses, nor in the Turkish census of 1671, nor in the catalog of 1834. In the census of 1881 it is mentioned with 185 Christian inhabitants.

Bibliography

Stergios Spanakis, The family surname Miliaras, Cretan Chronicles, vol. C (1949), p.204.
Heraklion and its Prefecture, published by the Prefecture of Heraklion.

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