Sights - Chania Prefecture - Akrotiri

Pazinos and the monastery of Agios Ioannis o Eleimonas

Akrotiri menu

 

4 km from the airport is the old Venetian village of Pazinos, called Kalangadon until 1961. As many other villages in Crete, it was named after its founders, in this case the Kalangás family.

 

Outside the village stands the newly restored, but uninhabited, monastery of Agios Ioannis o Eleimonas.

 

The monastery is mentioned for the first time in 1637, a few decades before the Turkish occupation of Crete, and as all the monasteries from this period, it is built with thick walls making it appear almost as a fortress.

 

 

 

The monastery might however have been built earlier, as its church is not situated in the actual court, as is the case of other monasteries in Crete from the late Venetian period. This break of the traditional style of building indicates, that is has been built in an earlier and, with that, more peaceful period. Also the construction around the court makes you think of Italian architecture, so perhaps the monastery was originally catholic.

 

 

 

During the Turkish period it was placed under the nearby Agia Triada monastery, which in its great periods sent out monks to other monasteries, as for example Pazinos, in order to take care of the religious ceremonies and fieldwork there.

 

 

Sights menu