Robert Redford's year in Crete and his desire to live with his family in a cave in Matala

The unconventional Hollywood star spent almost a year on the island in 1960, which enchanted him with its wild beauty

When a few years ago a Greek journalist greeted Robert Redford in English in the area where Hollywood stars make statements before the Oscars, this charming anti-star responded in Greek with a majestic "What are you doing?".

He then revealed that many years ago he had come to Greece with his family, in the mid-1960s, where he stayed for a year, based in Crete.

He was already known as the charming blonde of cinema, a title he never liked, just as he did not like personal exposure off set, being a guy who has not let Hollywood "swallow" him since then.

Family trip to Crete
At that time when shocking social changes were taking place in America, Redford was thirty years old, married to Lola Von Wagenen and the father of two children, 6-year-old Shona and 4-year-old James.

Robert Redford's year in Crete and his desire to live with his family in a cave in Matala
The family traveled first to Spain and then to Greece, choosing Crete for a long vacation, after they reportedly stayed on the island for about a year, initially in Heraklion.

There are no testimonies about how the Redford family experienced their stay in the city, beyond the few things the actor said in some interviews with Greek media, something rather expected since he always protected his private life.

What is certain is that he loved Crete.

That is why he wanted to get to know it better and so after a few months in Heraklion, he chose to go elsewhere, together with his wife and their two children.

From Elounda to Matala
Those who knew Redford very well knew his love for nature, since at the age of just eleven, when he was recovering from an illness, his mother took him to Yosemite National Park.

Little Robert was thrilled and the following summer he applied to work there, an experience that remained unforgettable for him, as he had the opportunity to live unique moments in the huge park.

In Crete in the 1960s, he discovered an island that was largely far from the new technologies that had begun to take over the large urban centers of Greece, and whose inhabitants were very hospitable.

After Heraklion, the family stayed for a while in Elounda, which was then an unknown village, with only one hotel operating at that time, in other words, an essentially untouched paradise.

The actor had probably learned some Greek words by now, and when he learned about Matala, the village with the natural caves where some people lived for a long time, he decided to visit them to see if they could stay in one of them as a family.

He was ever since a fanatical nature lover who chose not to live in a big city like Los Angeles or San Francisco, but on an estate he bought in Utah, on which he also built a beautiful house made of stone and wood.
There he was always happy to get lost in nature, which was so calming for this unconventional protagonist, who never felt like a star.