Arkadi Monastery

In the morning we walked around Rethymnon. On the left of this shot are three water spigots. This fountain dates from the 1500s, when Crete was part of a Venetian empire. It was later part of the Ottoman empire.

Crete is a mountainous island and our habit has been to drive up into the hills in the afternoon, when it is hot in Rethymnon. Today we explored Arakadi Monastery, in use for eight centuries.

The church within the walls was designed by two Italian architects in the 1500s. Note the cats in the front of the shot. There are cats all over Crete, the better to keep the rats at bay.

I like the church in the background in this shot.


When the Turks conquered Crete in the 1800s, there were many atrocities. For example, 300 people hid in a cave. When the Turks ordered them out, they refused to leave. The Turks lit a fire at the mouth of the cave and they all suffocated. At the monastery, 36 monks were rounded up into a single room and killed.
The mountains:

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