Kato Assìtes is located on the eastern foothills of Psiloritis, where the wavy valleys of Malevizi rest. The fertile soil and appropriate climate have favoured human settling from very early on.
At Kàstelas, near the Monastery of Gorgolaini, on a massive rock surface stretching to almost 4,000 sq.m, rock carvings have been located intact, suggestive of ancient times. These “prints”, the oral tradition tells us, have been created by the hooves of Dragon-slayer Saint George’s horse (Giannis Tseravelakis, 2005, (Memory voyage) Mnimis Anaplous). They are, in fact, four concavities, suggestive of an offering table carved on the rock, probably part of a libation ritual, in combination with the rock carved basin and construction bases still visible on the rock (Stelios Manolioudis, 2018, Dionysus). It is very possible that these rituals were related to the settlement called Nìssi, located at a lower level, next to the stream, among the trees. The place-name is very likely related to Dionysus, while right opposite the settlement there is a chapel dedicated to St. George,Methystis [the Inebriator], celebrated on the 3rd of November.
Ioannis D. Perogamvrakis (op.cit. G. Tservelakis) remembers thirty grape presses–of which scarcely any remain— and the following grape varieties: liatiko, kotsifali, mandilari, vilana, mavro romeiko, athyri, thrapsathyri, fraoula, rozakì, kominato, aromatic ladikinó, which produced ‘Muscat’ wine and ‘malvazia’. The building materials used for the grape presses were subsequently utilized by the locals for the construction of other edifices.
It is a great vineland, with panoramic view of the wavy valleys of Malevizi. The right altitude (300-500 m.), the soil and subsoil (marl-limestone and marl) which retain water within the bedrock, the climate and finally the terrain (facing NW, i.e. exposed to the beneficial meltemia –Northern breezes- of July – August) have been the formative conditions for the extensive growth of local viniculture. These right conditions for the production of high quality wine-grapes combined with the exportation oriented industry, resulted in turning viniculture into the fundamental pillar of local economy in Creto-Venetian times.
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