“The blood in these streets made us who we are”.

These words might have sounded fanciful in any other place – and coming from anyone else.

But we were sitting outside the tavern Skalomata in Anogeia, Crete, a village destroyed three times in its turbulent history.

And the speaker was the contemporary Cretan singer, songwriter and author, Loudovikos ton Anogeion.

Credited with describing Anogeia as “the first place you meet when you descend from heaven,” Loudovikos was explaining how suffering had shaped the culture of the village.

Anogeia was twice destroyed by the Ottomans in 1822 and 1867 – and then by the Germans in 1944, in retaliation for resistance activities.

“Pain and sorrow is the heritage of Anogeia, but so is resilience.

“In World War II, people were massacred here and every building was destroyed, only to be rebuilt.”

To underline this point, Loudovikos played his song The Colour of Love, which explores the theme that you cannot love if you have not suffered adversity.

If resilience and fiesty independence are in Anogeia’s DNA, so too is creativity and artistic expression.

 Loudovikos is only one of a disproportionate number of talented musicians to emerge from the area onto the Greek and world stage.

The village is also known for its folk art, including a weaving industry developed largely by the widows of men killed in the World War II massacre.  

Whether this burst of creative spirit is a direct cry from the bleeding heart of Anogeia’s painful past is up for speculation

However in a village of so many raw stories, the people have a deep respect for its story tellers. 

Loudovikos simply picked up his phone, hit a few numbers and I was talking the mayor of the village.  He spoke in glowing terms of the singer songwriter’s mission to explain the collective community spirit of Anogeia and its roots in a bloody past. 

Understandably, the people of Anogeia remember the repeated destruction of their village with a memorial featuring an Unknown Soldier statue in a central square.

The exact order given to German forces in 1944 is engraved in marble on one side of the memorial.

Each August, Anogeia also holds a day of remembrance, featuring community activities centred on the memorial.

Anogeia sits at the foot of the Idi mountain range in central Crete, an area dominated by Mount Psiloritis, the highest mountain on the island.

It is a charming village, with a cobblestone Main Street and an array of taverns, coffee shops and cafes where friendly locals gather beneath spreading trees and grapevines trailed across trellis.

Despite Anogeia’s treatment at the hands of foreigners over the centuries, the residents are welcoming and quick to offer the hospitality for which Crete is known worldwide.

During our talk with Loudovikos, the owners of the tavern Skalomata insisted that we sample the local cheese, fruit and bread. 

Anogeia is connected by public bus services from both Heraklion and Chania.