Traditional Professions
The Coopers of Heraklion
During the period of the Venetian rule, Cretan wine was greatly appreciated and its exports reached all the well known commercial centers of that era, like Portugal, Flanders, England, even Poland. A necessary prerequisite for the safe transport of the wine over long distances was the construction of watertight barrels. Thus many inhabitants of Chandakas (i.e. Candia, Heraklion) practiced the art of coopering. Many orders for barrels by merchants, private citizens and monasteries are recorded in notarial documents of that era, with the watertight integrity of the barrels as an indispensable condition.
In 1569, the foundation of the first trade union of coopers, which included 70 persons, was decided. In the first article of its statute, St. Martin is designated as the patron saint of the trade union, and every year, on November 11, the trade union had to organize a feast in his honor.
In 1617, the coopers of Chandakas were accommodated in the church of Panagia Pantanassa, whose second aisle was dedicated to Agios Minas. This is the Small Agios Minas church, next to the great church of Agios Minas in Heraklion. Gradually, Agios Minas of the Orthodox and not Saint Martin of the Catholics was mentioned as the patron saint of the trade union, since the people who practiced the profession of cooper were Cretans, not Venetians.
In other historic documents, 1639 is mentioned as the founding date of the trade union of coopers in the city of Chandakas.
Manoussos, brother of Dominikos Theotokopoulos, was a well-known cooper and a member of this trade union. In fact the great Cretan artist painted a painting which depicts Saint Martin and a beggar, which now is found in the National Gallery of Washington.
During the Turkish occupation, coopers’ workshops or barrel workshops existed on Marinelli Street and they extended from the sanctuary of Agios Dimitrios church to Mitsotaki Street. The barrels which they constructed were used to export citrus fruits until the end of the 1930s. Some of them were still operating until approximately the end of the 1960s.
Barrel workshops
At the beginning of the 19th century in Heraklion there were many barrel shops, i.e. places for the construction and repair of barrels.
Wooden barrels were made for the fermentation of wine and its storage and transport.
Wooden barrel-shaped and scoop-shaped objects were also made.
Special tools were needed to make the barrels.
Initially, the round lids (fountia) were created using a compass, and the barrel’s one-piece boards were cut. The craftsmen used various kinds of moulds and various sizes of compasses. In the center of the barrel workshop was the plane, a wooden structure standing on a tripod, where the craftsmen prepared the wooden boards (doges) of the barrel. The doges were bent by fire. The barrel on which the doges had been placed was transferred to an adjacent construction, the winch (vintsaki). The winch was constructed by a tree trunk and an iron pulley with a rotating lever. The barrel was placed on the trunk and a wire rope pressed the doges to create the necessary curve. Fluffy grass was placed between the doges and it swelled by the use of water, thus making the barrel watertight. The construction of the barrel was completed by tightening the hand-made metallic hoops (tserki) with hammers and placing the lids (fountia).
Afterwards holes were drilled on the upper circular side of the barrel, which were enlarged to assist the inflow of must or wine in the barrel, as well as the placement of a tap for the outflow of its contents. Before its first use, the barrel was dusted and washed with hot water to make it watertight, or with piraftyla (sulfur wicks) to disinfect it from dead fungi, microbes, etc. if it had been used and it contained fetsa (a layer of mud from previous wine). The barrels were placed in cool, clean areas to prevent the wine from turning sour. Often new wine was placed into an old barrel, but the wine was oxidized.
Forges
During the previous century many metallic objects were used in Crete’s agricultural economy. Thus, in almost every village there was a blacksmith (charkias) who made and repaired metallic tools and objects for domestic and professional use, in his workshop.
The metal treatment steps included annealing, punching, welding and painting. Using bellows they stoked the fire to produce the high temperatures required for the metal to glow. Then the blacksmith carried the red-hot metal to the anvil, with tongs, to forge it. The anvil had cutter slots, which determined where the hammer would cut the metal. The tips and cutting edges of sharp tools were reinforced with steel by welding. The last stage, painting, as it was called, aimed at the controlled hardening of the metal according to the use for which it was intended.
The blacksmith made locks, keys, traps, bolts for the daily requirements of the locals.
For craftsmen and professionals (carpenters, craftsmen, woodcarvers, workers, butchers, farmers, livestock breeders, saddle makers, shoemakers, etc.) various tools were prepared: shovels (palames), pickaxes, picks, hoes, big and small two-prong weeding hoes, axes, hatchets, screws, hammers, hooks (kerkelia), awls, compasses, barrel hoops, tongs, pitchforks, sickles, metal parts of ploughs, ploughshares, corners, chains, etc.
Wineskin manufacturers
Mistato with content 9 okades of wine
Wine trade thrived during the Cretan-Venetian period. The unit of measurement used was the mistato, a clay vessel of 9 ocades (Oka = an old unit of weight equal to 1.24 kg) capacity. A hole existed at the neck of the vessel from which the wine flowed, an indication that the vessel was full. The wine was transferred from these vessels to wineskins which were the main object of transport until 1912 officially and unofficially until 1945 at least. Afterwards, at the port or at the final destination, the wine was transferred into barrels.
Small wineskins were made of goat skin, while the big ones were made of male goat skin. The skin of the animals which was intended for wineskins was processed with great care. The skinner (butcher) “skinned” the animal very carefully, trying not to cut the skin with his knife. The skins were collected by craftsmen called “askitzides” (wineskin manufacturers) who sewed the back and front legs, the so-called bouzounia, from which the filled bag was held when it was loaded for transportation; a hole was made at the neck through which the wine flowed in and out.
To fill the wineskin, a mastelo (metallic vessel) was placed under the tap to prevent the wine from spilling. The mistato was filled till the hole of its neck, i.e. with a quantity of 9 okades, and the wine was transferred to the wineskin. The hole in the neck of the mistato was also called “thief’s hole” because, sometimes, during the filling of the wineskin, the merchant closed it with his finger and stole the content from the hole up, i.e. of the neck. On the other hand, according to certain testimonies, the muleteers drank some of the wine during the transport of the wineskins from the village (e.g. Archanes) to the port. To hide the loss, they refilled the quantity they had drunk with water from the next stream. Thus, sometimes, frogs were found in the wine due to this act.
Later on the capacity of the barrels was measured by jugs. A barrel had a capacity of 50 or 30 jugs.
Wineskin made of goatskin