Vassileoniko

Location

Vassileoniko is located six kilometers southwest of the city of Chios and very close to the area of Kambos. The origin of its name seems to be a compound of the words Vassileon ("kings") and Oikos ("home"), since the village was once, according to the popular tradition, the residence of a king.

A destructive earthquake leveled the whole village in 1881. According to "The History of Chios" by G. Zolotas, a few houses with a small church in the center composed the village. The church, which is devoted to Agios Georgios,  still exists today. After the earthquake, however, the citizens of the village decided to build a greater one. Another version says that there were only three houses in the village, in the so-called Valide Tsiflik ("Property of the Sultan's Wife") near the castle of Doxara.

The estates of the Sultans found in the area were rented annually as a tax to the Sultan's wife for 200 coins. The tenants, along with the citizens of Dafnona and those of Karyes, were obliged to watch and maintain the aqueducts of the town. Families from there came to Chios after the slaughter of 1770 in Peloponnisos and settled in Vassileoniko only with the permission of the Turk supervisor (Aghas), since the village was closed with gates that opened by the order of the administrator.