Venetian Mansion at Karydi
The Venetian mansion of Karydi, located very close to the Monastery of Saint George in Karydi, province Apokoronas, dates from 1650-1750. It is a two-storey building part of a general complex that includes an olive mill of the same period. It was the residence of the Venetian lord of a fertile area, characterized by extensive olive cultivation even today.
During the Turkish occupation, the monastery together with all the facilities and the mansion were part of the Monastery of the Hagia Triada of Tzagaroli. Karydi was its most important dependency until 1866. In recent years, the Karydi monastery became a property of the Greek State and the mansion operated as a silk house, while its adjacent olive mill was completely abandoned.
The mansion, despite its continuous use - as a result of which later construction phases have been added - is a typical example of Mannerist architecture in the Cretan countryside in the late 16th - early 17th century. Nevertheless, it retained its basic manneristic features (such as a monumental doorway and windows adorned with protruding corrugated cornices), which makes it particularly important because it is one of the few surviving specimens of this period in the island's countryside. Although the monument has undergone subsequent additions and alterations to the ground recesses as well as damage from earthquakes, it remains an important sample of the Cretan Renaissance.
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