Vai (Crete)

Vai Aesthetic Forest
Φοινικόδασος τοῦ Βάι
The open forest is shown with Phoenix theophrasti in all stages of development from free-standing trees to small maquis-type bush trees.
Vai
Nearest town	Palaikastro
Coordinates	35°15′16″N 26°15′39″E / 35.25444°N 26.26083°E / 35.25444; 26.26083
Length	0.568 mi (0.914 km)
Width	0.106 mi (0.171 km)
Area	20 ha (49 acres)[1]
Max. elevation	7.6 m (25 ft)
Min. elevation	0
Designation	National Park
Established	1985
Governing body	Greek Forestry Service

Vai beach Παραλία Βάι
Beach
The central beach from the palm line showing the sun shelters.
Coordinates: 35°15′17″N 26°15′54″E / 35.25462°N 26.26491°E / 35.25462; 26.26491
Dimensions
• Length	256 m (280 yd)
• Width	57 m (62 yd)

"Vai Villa" Minoan site

A view to the west up the valley. The access road is on the left. The region of Vai Villa is out of sight over the pass ahead, in the agricultural land of Toplou Monastery.
Coordinates	35°15′01″N 26°15′08″E / 35.250251°N 26.252309°E / 35.250251; 26.252309[i]
Length	13.33 m (43.7 ft)
Width	8 m (26 ft)
Site notes
Discovered	1950
Archaeologists	French School at Athens
Condition	Much deteriorated and damaged by a bulldozer.
Ownership	Greek Archaeological Service

Vai or more accurately Vaï (Greek: Βάι),^[ii] Greek for "palm",^[2][iii] is a region of east Crete between Cape Sidero and Cape Plaka, just south of the site of ancient Itanus but north of the villages that surround and are part of Palaikastro. Vai does not belong to them nor is it part of any civic unit of the local civic division of Greece. It is not itself an official village.^[iv] The region is somewhat isolated on the isolated northeast peninsula, connecting only to Eparchos odos moni Toplou, the only road between Palaikastro and Toplou Monastery.^[v] The entire distance is essentially trackless and deserted, as the name of one of the beaches at Itanus suggests, Eremoupolis, "deserted city".

Vai is a protected area under the jurisdiction of the national government. It has been defined as different kinds of parkland by different governmental agencies. Vai Palm Forest, or more officially Vai Aesthetic Forest,^[3] contains several thousand palm trees in a valley perpendicular to the beach and running down to it. Before being protected, the forest was used as an ad hoc campground by a large transient population frequenting the beach. In the late 20th century, to protect it, the forest was declared a national park and was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence.^[4]

Vai beach is popular but crowded. Staying on the beach overnight is not allowed. Some daytime facilities are collected in a building center behind the beach, and there is a parking lot. A few restaurants have taken advantage of the road. Palms extend across the back of the beach. In front of them are rows of quasi-permanent shelters from the sun, which vary from decade to decade: umbrellas at one time, tents at another, thatched roofs at another. Overnight visitors are expected to find lodging and necessities in the villages surrounding Palaikastro to the south, a few minutes away. To the north is the deserted city of Itanos, which, however, has some camping and two beaches. Itanos beach as well as Psili Ammos beach to the south have been clothing optional. North of Eremoupolis beach, the shoreline becomes rugged and cliff-lined, and the country desert.

The next most general park system imposed on Vai is the Natura 2000 protected areas mandated by the European Union in conjunction with the government of Greece. The abandoned land on the Itanos peninsula of Cape Sidero, from which the national park had been created by eminent domain, is a refugium (biological "refuge") for indigenous plant and animal species, many rare or endangered, as well as a station of the migration routes for a large number of migratory birds. The ecology needs to be protected.

Coincidentally the entire area had come under archaeological scrutiny by a collaboration of archaeological organizations, such as the French School at Athens, which had been conducting excavations on ancient Itanus, just to the north of Vai, and had also discovered the Minoan villa. The resulting Itanos Archaeological Survey conducted during the period 1994-2005 had located roughly 100-200 sites covering occupation of the cape since the Neolithic.^[5] The government therefore declared two new Natura 2000 protected areas in northeast Crete, GR4320006 authorized under the Habitats Directive for protection of the species,^[1] and GR4320009 for protecting sites of community importance.^[6]

Between them the two Natura 2000 areas account for the entire NE peninsula^[7] from and including Cape Plaka, but not as far west as Siteia, all of Cape Sidero and the offshore islands, and most of the survey territory. In 2015 a third level of park was applied, the Sitia UNESCO Global Geopark, protecting the geological formations of all of east Crete.

Except for Palaikastro and the surrounding villages, the region had no official settlements, the reason being that until after WWII the land except for Palaikastro was owned by Toplou Monastery. In the disputes over the land in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the land was regarded as real estate, a form of property. The owner of land should have the use of it and should be able to dispose of it. When the government took possession of the tip of Cape Sidero and built a military base there, it denied the use of the land to the monastery, and yet maintained the monastery's ownership of the land. The Greek Archaeological Service similarly took possession of the archaeological sites, and the National Forest Service of the palm forest, and yet the fiction was maintained that the monastery owned the land. What rights that ownership entailed finally became a matter for the courts.

These developments left the 2011 municipal planners with the problem of how to treat the former monastic lands. Except for creating the settlement of Toplou to contain the monastery and its industry, and the settlement of Kyriamadi for the base, they did nothing. The monastery still owns farms and businesses in the area. It can't do anything contrary to the dictates of the parkland, which is administered as a Natura 2000 protected area, and yet it otherwise owns the land and retains the rights of owners. Restaurants and other businesses along the road give their addresses as a number, the name of the road, and "Toplou," "Palaikastro," or "Siteia," all in the Toplou hierarchy.

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