MONASTERIES
GOUVERNETO MONASTERY
Gouverneto Monastery or Our Lady of the Angels is an Orthodox monastery in the Akrotiri peninsula, located about 5 kilometers north of the Holy Trinity Monastery. If you wish to approach the monastery you have to continue North from the monastery of the Holy Trinity, to a narrow road of an exceptional beauty.
MONASTERY OF KATHOLIKO
In a distance of just half an hour from the monastery of Gouverneto, is this abandoned monastery of Agios Ioannis or Katholiko monastery. It is considered to be the most ancient monastery of Crete, most likely to have been built around the 6th or 7th century. In this monastery a Cretan saint, Agios Ioannis, Erimitis or Xenos lived and practiced.
GONIA MONASTERY
A kilometer north of Kolympari, at the peninsula of Spatha, there is located the monastery of Gonia. The whole monastery is built as a castle: The central church that is devoted to Virgin Mary, is in the middle of the construction and it is surrounded by a group of chapels.
THE MONASTERY OF CHRISSOSKALITISSA
Chrisoskalitissa is the most remote monastery in Crete (75kilometers southwest from Chania). The monastery is situated on the south western edge of Crete. Ninety steps lead to the top of the rock and tradition has it that one of them is gold. That is where it gets its name (In Greek, Chrisoskalitissa means golden step).
THE MONASTERY OF CHRISSOPIGI
The monastery of Chryssopigi is located 3 kilometers from the city, at the route towards Souda bay. It was founded at the end of the 16th century and it is devoted to Virgin Mary the Miraculous, named after the homonymous illustration that attracts thousands of visitors each year. Across the centuries the monastery has known various periods of flourishing and decline. It was seriously damaged by the Turks and by the Germans, but it was fully restored to today’s form in 1976.