Gortyn, Crete: Rome's Cretan Capital
Gortyn sits directly on the Heraklion–Messara road and holds the oldest substantially surviving law code in Europe, plus a ruined sixth-century basilica. Forty minutes, almost no detour, and hardly anyone stops.
Almost everyone driving from Heraklion to Phaistos or Matala passes Gortyn, and almost nobody stops. The site is on the roadside at Agioi Deka, it costs three-quarters of an hour, and it holds the oldest substantially surviving law code in Europe alongside a sixth-century basilica that is still partly standing. It is the best-value stop on the Messara run by a distance, and it is skipped because nothing about the roadside tells you what is behind the fence.
The short version
Gortyn is at Agioi Deka, about 45km south of Heraklion, directly on the road to Phaistos and Matala. It was the Roman capital of Crete. The headline is the Gortyn Law Code — twelve columns of fifth-century BC law, carved in boustrophedon, the oldest substantially surviving law code in Europe. Also on site: the ruined basilica of Agios Titos, a Roman odeon, and the evergreen plane tree of the Europa legend. Allow 30–45 minutes. There is shade, which no other stop on this drive offers.
Gortyn, Gortyna or Gortys?
Worth settling first, because it causes real confusion on the road. All three are the same place. Gortyn and Gortyna are the common English and Latinised forms; Gortys is nearer the Greek. Your map app, the brown road sign and your ticket may each use a different one. Nothing has gone wrong.
The Law Code
This is why the site matters, and it is a genuinely strange thing to stand in front of.
Around 450 BC, the city inscribed a body of law across twelve columns, roughly six hundred lines, in the Doric Greek of Crete. The blocks were later re-used by Roman builders in the curved wall of the odeon, which is the accident that preserved them — they were structural, so nobody quarried them away. They now sit under cover in that curved wall, where you can walk along and read the length of it.
Two things make it exceptional. First, completeness: fragments of early Greek law survive in many places, but nothing else of this period survives at anything like this length, which makes it the oldest substantially preserved law code in Europe.
Second, subject matter. It is not criminal law or constitutional grandstanding. It is overwhelmingly family and property law — who inherits, what happens to property on divorce, how adoption works, what a woman keeps when a marriage ends, how disputed ownership of a person is resolved. Penalties are graded explicitly by status: free, apetairos, serf, slave. It is a document about how an ancient society actually ran its households, and it is unusually informative about the legal position of women, who could hold and inherit property in ways that would have been unavailable in Athens.
The text is written boustrophedon — “as the ox turns”, one line left to right, the next right to left, the way a plough works a field. It was standard in archaic Greek inscription before left-to-right won out. Reading it on the stone, following the line back on itself, is the sort of thing you cannot get from a photograph.
It was identified in 1884 by the Italian archaeologist Federico Halbherr with the German epigrapher Ernst Fabricius, after earlier blocks had turned up in a nearby mill stream.
The Basilica of Agios Titos
The other standing structure, and the more immediately impressive one.
Titus was a disciple of Paul, sent to organise the church on Crete and traditionally its first bishop. The basilica was raised over what was held to be his grave, most likely in the sixth century AD, when Gortyn was the capital of the island and a major Christian centre. A substantial part of the apse and crossing is still standing to a good height — enough that the building reads as a building rather than a floor plan, which is rare for anything of this date on Crete.
For the island’s Christian history this is the origin point, and it is the reason Agios Titos remains a significant name in Heraklion, where a church of the same dedication stands in the city centre.
The Rest of the Site
The odeon — the small Roman theatre whose curved wall carries the Law Code. Its stone is the reason the text survived.
The plane tree — an evergreen plane by the site, which local legend says never sheds its leaves because Zeus and Europa lay beneath it, and their children Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon were conceived there. Believe as much of that as you like; the shade is real and welcome.
The city across the road. What is fenced and ticketed is a small fraction of Gortyn. The Roman city sprawled across the plain and up the acropolis behind, and included a praetorium, baths, an amphitheatre and a temple of Apollo Pythios. Most of it is unexcavated or only partly cleared, scattered through olive groves on the other side of the road, unlabelled and largely unvisited. You can walk parts of it. It is atmospheric rather than informative, and it gives the truest sense of how large this place once was.
Gortyn was the capital of the joint Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica and one of the largest cities on the island for centuries. It was sacked by Arab raiders in the ninth century and never recovered — which is why the capital of Crete is now on the north coast and this is a field with a fence in it.
Getting there
The one stop on this drive that costs no detour
Gortyn is on the Heraklion–Messara road at Agioi Deka, with parking at the gate. There is no useful bus, but if you are already driving to Phaistos or Matala it adds forty minutes and no distance at all.
Compare Crete car hire →What It’s Actually Like to Visit
Small, quick and easy — which is exactly why it works as a stop rather than a destination.
The enclosed site is immediately off the road with its own parking. A modest entry fee, a short circuit taking in the Law Code wall, the basilica and the odeon, and you are back in the car in thirty to forty-five minutes. Signage is adequate rather than generous; the Law Code in particular repays reading about beforehand, because the stone tells you nothing about what it says.
The plane trees give real shade, which makes Gortyn the one comfortable archaeological stop on this route in high summer — Phaistos is an exposed ridge and Matala’s cave walkways are worse. On a July day, doing Gortyn at midday and saving the others for the cooler hours is a sensible inversion of the usual advice.
Hours are shorter in winter and Greek site opening times shift by season, so check before making a special trip. As a stop on a drive you were making anyway, the risk is small.
Combining It
Gortyn is not really a day out. It is the first stop on one.
The standard Messara day: leave Heraklion early, Gortyn at around 9.30 for forty minutes, Phaistos by 10.45 while the ridge is still cool, then Matala for lunch, the caves and the afternoon on the beach. That takes you from Roman to Minoan to the Libyan Sea in one drive, and no part of it doubles back.
Add Agia Triada — the Minoan villa three kilometres from Phaistos, usually on the same ticket — if you want the archaeology weighted more heavily.
Add Vori, and the Museum of Cretan Ethnology, if the weather turns.
If you would rather be driven, day trips from Heraklion combine the Messara sites with Matala in season. Our Heraklion tours guide compares the options.
When to Go
- April–June — the Messara is green, the wildflowers are out, and the plain is at its best. The strongest window.
- September–October — warm, quiet, and comfortable on foot.
- July–August — the shade makes this the easiest stop of the day. Take it at midday and do the exposed sites early and late.
- November–March — cool and very quiet, but check winter opening hours before driving down. See winter in Heraklion.
More on this side of the island in our Matala and south coast guide and the Phaistos guide. The drive itself is covered in our car rental guide.
Keep reading
Phaistos, Crete: The Quiet Minoan Palace
Phaistos is the second-largest Minoan palace, 62km south of Heraklion on a ridge above the Messara plain — unreconstructed, uncrowded, and the place the Phaistos Disc came from. Tickets, what you see, and how to plan it.
Visiting Knossos: Tickets, Bus 2, Opening Hours and the Best Time to Go
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Agia Pelagia, Crete: Calm Water 23km West
Agia Pelagia is the main resort west of Heraklion — a wind-sheltered bay with several beaches, tavernas along the front and an hourly bus into the city. Who it suits and what to expect.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Gortyn in Crete? ▾
At the village of Agioi Deka on the Messara plain, roughly 45km south of Heraklion and about 50 minutes' drive. It sits directly on the main road running south and west towards Phaistos and Matala, so it costs almost no detour — the fenced site and its car park are on the roadside.
Is it Gortyn, Gortyna or Gortys? ▾
All three name the same place, and you will meet all three on signs, maps and tickets. Gortyn and Gortyna are the usual English and Latinised forms; Gortys is closer to the Greek. Searching any of them finds the same site, so do not assume you have the wrong place when the spelling changes between your map and the road sign.
What is the Gortyn Law Code? ▾
A legal inscription of around 450 BC, carved in Doric Greek across twelve columns and roughly 600 lines on stone blocks, now built into a curved wall on the site. It is the oldest and most complete surviving law code in Europe. It deals largely with family and property law — inheritance, marriage and divorce, adoption, the ownership of slaves — and it assigns different penalties by social status, which is a large part of what makes it historically valuable.
Why is the Law Code written in alternating directions? ▾
It is written in boustrophedon, literally 'as the ox turns' — one line runs left to right, the next right to left, like a plough working a field. This was normal in early Greek inscriptions before left-to-right became standard, and reading it on the stone is one of the few places you can see the convention in person rather than in a textbook.
Who was Agios Titos and why is there a basilica at Gortyn? ▾
Titus was a disciple of the Apostle Paul, sent to organise the church on Crete and traditionally counted its first bishop. The basilica at Gortyn was raised over what was held to be his grave, probably in the sixth century AD, when Gortyn was the island's capital. A substantial part of the apse and crossing still stands, making it one of the most complete early Christian buildings surviving on Crete.
How long do you need at Gortyn? ▾
Thirty to forty-five minutes covers the fenced roadside site — the Law Code wall, the basilica, the odeon and the plane tree. The much larger Roman city lies across and along the road, mostly unexcavated and only partly accessible, and could absorb another hour if you want to walk it.
Is Gortyn worth stopping at? ▾
Yes, largely because it is free of the usual trade-off: it is on the road to Phaistos and Matala rather than off it, so the stop costs you three-quarters of an hour and no driving. You get the oldest law code in Europe, a standing sixth-century basilica and shade — the last of which matters more than it sounds on a Messara day in July.