Akoumia village

The village was founded in the heyday of the Byzantine Empire around 1000 and more specifically when Nikiforos Fokas liberated Crete from the Arabs and established Christian families to strengthen the population, as evidenced by the frescoes in Christ (Church of the Transfiguration). dating from the 10th - 11th century [4].
His presence in the historical struggles was continuous both in the Cretan revolution with the historically witnessed participation of Captain Anagnostis Marinakis and the gathering of the captains under the plane tree and in the Balkan wars and in the Asia Minor campaign as well as during the Occupation.
Designation
The name comes from a corruption of the word Komnenos by the great Byzantine family whose parents were transferred to Crete or in other words its founder was named Koumis according to the Byzantine scientist Nikolaos Papadakis from Vrises. The third version wants the name from the word kumi = koumos = small makeshift camp> Koumia> Akumia> Akumia [4].Primarily an agricultural area with residents always divided into the main urban settlement and the farmhouses of Gialia. Engaging in agriculture and animal husbandry has helped shape a closed economic community with limited openings, making survival difficult under often adverse conditions. That is why they probably appreciated the letters and the education that enabled the younger ones to improve their quality of life and thus the large number of educated people is explained, as well as the -mainly internal- migration.
Always homogeneous and numerous community self-sufficient, with a rich folk tradition delimited by the needs of everyday life, it is of particular folklore interest to the scholar. Self-sufficient and hierarchical society with strict principles and religious rules, with solidarity among the inhabitants and consensus on important issues - perhaps due to low crime - has as its point of reference the common religious life that determines social and always expresses itself with reference point the square where the central church of Panagia with the homonymous festival.
Today, demographically shrinking the community is steadily surviving with improved living conditions and strong mobility mainly during the summer so the local population gathering with a reference point the festival of August 15 and the lively movement of the beach enhance its presence and form a new face which combines tradition with the modern way of life.