By bus, ferry, car… Remembering Crete. Part 6. From the Trinity to the Bear

28 September 2020 • Travel time: with 14 September 2019 on 28 September 2019

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To be continued. Start here:

Part 1. The puzzle is complete >>>

Part 2. In the labyrinth of history >>>

Part 3. “Candia remained for the descendants…” > >>

Part 4.17 shades of blue >>>

Part 5. The enchanting serenity of La Canea >>>

From the stories and reviews of tourists who visited Crete, I made two conclusions for myself: firstly, there are a lot of attractions; secondly, a significant part of them are Orthodox churches and monasteries, an additional bonus of which is their location in the most beautiful places on the island and their own interesting history.

For example, The Cathedral of the Three Martyrsin Chania was built in the middle of the 19th century. on the site of a soap factory that worked in the "Turkish" period. At the end of the century, it was destroyed and later restored, as they say, at the personal expense of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II as compensation for the damage caused to Crete by the Russian fleet during the Russian-Turkish war.

And on the square in front of the cathedral, among others, you can see the sculpture of Agnastostis Mantakos, who hoisted the Greek flag over the bastion of the Firkas fortress in honor of the annexation of Crete to Greece in 1913.

But the monasteries located in the vicinity of Chania made a stronger impression on me. Having freedom of movement thanks to our German cutie, it was a sin not to take advantage of this and not to drive along the Akrotiri peninsula near the former capital. Moreover, the roads here are excellent, albeit narrow, and even signs are found here and there. And the fact that during the trip we managed to stop literally at the exit from the arrivals hall of the airport of Ioannis Daskalogiannis (thank you, not on the runway of the NATO Air Force base adjacent to the airport), rather characterizes me as a navigator, and not the Greek road services. : ))

But in spite of everything, having driven along a beautiful cypress alley, we park near the Monastery of Agia Triada (Monastery of the Holy Trinity), also called Tsagorolon (in other sources Zangorolon ).

In the future, the events of the turbulent history of the island did not bypass the monastery - under the Turks, oddly enough, it was not destroyed or even turned into a mosque, which is explained very prosaically - the monastery paid a considerable tribute to the Ottomans, but simply gave the name "Selvili Manastir" - "Monastery with cypresses" (although now pines, palms and bananas predominate here).

But during the Greek Revolution, the monks had to leave the monastery, leaving a collection of collected historical manuscripts and other relics to be burned by the Turks. Later, the monastery of the Holy Trinity was reconstructed and was able to restore its former wealth.

Now there is a functioning museum in Agia Triada, but one can imagine how much more impressive its collection would have been if it had not been for the destruction of monastic valuables mentioned above in 1821.

Yes, and I also want to note that in most Greek temples, shooting inside is prohibited, and although there are usually no caretakers there, we are not inclined to violate such prohibitions, so most of our photographs are exterior.

It doesn't matter, as the monastery of Agia Triada is considered to be one of the most impressive Cretan monasteries. And one cannot but agree with this, being among such beauty.

At the same time, you don’t even really pay attention to particulars - the presence of the Doric style columns declared in the guide...

…or architectural features of the Renaissance.

You are simply impressed by the beauty, comfort and tranquility of this place, in which you want to stay longer. : )

Tsagorolon Monastery also produces olive oil from its own olive groves, wine from its own vineyards, as well as another Cretan specialty - thyme honey. I will say this, at first I did not quite imagine what this strange product would taste like, but believe me - the thing is simply amazing!!!

And the monastery of Agia Triada made such an impression on us that we decided to continue our journey and stop by the Gouverneto Monastery (in other sources, Yuverneto) located just a few kilometers away.

Moreover, you need to get there along a very picturesque mountain road.

The Monastery of Gouverneto dates back to the 16th century. and is a fortification-type complex with a cathedral in the central courtyard.

There are not very many monks here (for some reason I remember that there are only 8 of them, but I could be wrong) and they lead a very strict lifestyle. And how beautifully they sang! We just got to the evening service - the impressions are amazing!

Among the restrictions in force on the territory of the monastery, there is also a ban on any photography, but here, forgive me, the monks, I could not resist and took a few pictures. I consider the fact that I took one of the photos already from the observation deck behind the monastery an excusing circumstance for myself, i. e. outside the territory. : )

The views from here are beautiful.

At the same time, a path begins here, descending to the abandoned Katoliko Monastery, which dates back to the 5th-6th centuries. Guidebooks say that the monastery is located in a gorge on a steep cliff and is dedicated to St. John the Hermit. We have not been able to verify this with our own eyes. Of course, we started the descent to it, but we only got to the picturesque ancient wall surrounded by the remains...

…the caves of Arkudiotissa, which means “bear” in Greek. The cave got its name because of the stalagmite inside and resembling a bear.

Since it was getting late in the evening, we didn’t dare to go further along the descending serpentine, but climbed back to Gouverneto, cast a farewell glance at the expanses of the Cretan Sea and went to the hotel to rest.

Because in the next part, we will travel with north to south.

Translated automatically from Russian. View original