Climbing Kopsas Hill, Where the Wind, the Chapel, and the Past Still Speak [Anopolis, Crete]

October 2025 · 4 min read · Gouves Municipal Unit

We were returning home when we spotted the moon.
It looked full, so round and so close to us!

Our first thought was to try finding a high place, so that we could get as close as possible and feel its glow.

It was October 5th, just one day before the full Supermoon that will rise today, October 6th (called the Harvest Moon)

We found a dirty road, and we thought that the car would easily go there. There were in fact a few other cars also stopped outside a big, iron door.

We pushed it and we saw one the most beautiful sceneries I have recently encountered.

Here's what I found .. and what I have learned after searching online.

The spot we visited is the hill of Kopsas and on it is found the little church of Profitis Ilias. In this post we will also learn why people visit this place once every May.

Above the villages of the Heraklion–Hersonissos area, one can find the rocky hill known locally as Kopsas (Κοψάς). From its slopes you get an unobstructed view over the landing zones and roads that lead to the city and the airport. And this is exactly why this hill has been important more than once in history. The Anopoli community and nearby villages have long regarded the Kopsas rise as both a strategic viewpoint and a place of local memory. Today it’s a quiet, stony spot that locals and visitors climb to for the views and the history that hangs about the place.

It is not so difficult to go by a simple car, but you need to know that the road is not asphalt

Before I went up the hill, I stopped for a moment to see if I could have a closer look at the view, the moon and at the sheep that were in the area.

The church of Profitis Ilias is a few meters up the hill. It is not difficult to go, even if you wear heels (but of course comfortable shoes are preferred)

Before the chapel

I decided to check the eastern side view before heading to the chapel.
It was amazing

https://youtube.com/shorts/bAXOrJ6d19E

At the very top stands a simple chapel dedicated to Profitis Ilias, the familiar mountaintop saint of many Greek communities. The church is of a traditional style and it’s used both for the saint’s feast (July 20) and as a local landmark. Parts of the building still preserve traces of wartime use.
As per some sources, the chapel was used as a defensive post during the Battle of Crete and that the churchyard contains wartime relics. even the chapel bell is said to have been fashioned from a piece of a German bomb that fell in the area. I did not have this information before, so I do not have a close up of some spots, but I will try for next time.
source

You can also find a spot where there are monk tables and chairs, so you can have something with you and do a family picnic. (But please make sure to take the garbage with you when leaving)

What happened here, what is the Battle of Kopsas (May 1941) and why people gather each year in May.

During the German airborne invasion of Crete in May 1941, Kopsas became the scene of one of the fierce local actions that made up the wider Battle of Crete. At dawn (accounts place the fighting in the area on 20–21 May 1941), a small Greek force, reported in local histories as roughly 80 men under the command of sub-lieutenant Theódoros Kallínos — and armed Cretan volunteers engaged German paratrooper units that were attempting to push inland from their drop zones. Because of the hill’s commanding views over the landing areas and the road toward Heraklion, the defenders were able to harass and slow German movements; the position and the little chapel were even used as firing positions and light fortifications during the clash. That stubborn local resistance became part of the region’s wartime memory.
source in Greek

Every May the local municipality of Chersonisso, church and cultural associations hold commemorations at the chapel to honour those who fought and those who fell.

Services, wreath-layings and small public ceremonies are held in the chapel’s forecourt early in the morning on the anniversary.

Officials, veterans’ families, local groups and residents come together to remember the events and to pass the story on to younger generations.
One of the relevant press releases