Kissamos is a town and municipality, multiple bishopric and Latintitular see in the west of the island of Crete, Greece. It is part of the Chaniaregional unit and of the former Kissamos Province which covers the northwest corner of the island. The city of Kissamos is also known as Kastelli Kissamou and often known simply as Kastelli after the Venetian castle that was there. It is now a port and fishing harbour, with a regular ferry from the Peloponnese via Kythira. A town museum is located in the old Venetian governor's palace and there have been important archaeological finds in the town, including fine mosaics, dating from the Roman city of Kisamos. The head town of the municipality is Kastelli-Kissamos itself.
History
said that ancient Cisamus was dependent on Aptera and was its naval arsenal. The Peutinger Table distinguishes two port towns in Crete called Cisamus, Modern Kissamos is much further west than where Aptera is now placed. It was excluded already by Pashley in 1837 as being, of the two ancient maritime Cretan cities named Kisamos, the one associated with Aptera. In the past, when the port of Aptera was thought to be present-day Kissamos, some supposed Aptera to be identical with Polyrrhenia, and Kissamos to be the port of Polyrrhenia. However, Strabo and other ancient sources say that Polyrrhenia's port was at Phalasarna on the west coast.
Ecclesiastical history
Ancient Cisamus became a Christian bishopric, a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Gortyna, the capital of the Roman province of Crete. Only two of its first-millennium bishops are named in extant contemporary documents: Theopemptus, Nicetas at the Trullan Council in 692, and Leo at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.
After the Venetian conquest of Crete in 1212, Kissamos became a Latin Church diocese. The names of more than 20 residential Latin bishops from then until the end of the 16th century are known, including : ;Suffragan Bishops of Kisamo ''
No longer a residential bishopric, Kissamos is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular bishopric, since it was suppressed as residential see around 1600 AD. It has been vacant for decades, having had the following incumbents, all of the lowest rank :
Fortunato Bisleti
Miguel Anselmo Álvarez de Abreu y Valdéz, as Auxiliary Bishop of Tlaxcala
The municipality of Kissamos was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of three former municipalities, which became municipal units:
The province of Kissamos was one of the provinces of the Chania Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipality of Kissamos, and the municipal units of Kolymvari and Voukolies. It was abolished in 2006.
