The Gallery of Viannos is housed in a restored olive oil mill at Keratokambos. The vision of its founder Savvas Petrakis became a reality in 2008, when the gallery was inaugurated by the President of Greece.
In the middle of the village there was a three-storey Venetian tower, built by the Venetians to secure their dominance over the wider region. It is considered that the tower belonged to the feudal family of Francesco Vlachos, as the crest of the Vlachos family is still surviving on a tomb in Agios Athanasios position (next to the village). When the Turks conquered the region of Sitia, they found the tower in excellent condition and used it immediately so as to oversee the area.
Sivrytos (Sibryta) is an ancient town built on the hill Kefala near the current villages Thronos and Agia Fotini. It was founded during the dark years of ancient Crete, after the destruction of the Minoan civilization (1200BC) when the desperate Minoans founded cities in the most inhospitable and inaccessible peaks of the Cretan mountains, but flourished mainly in the Greco-Roman times.
The Minoan settlement at ‘Fournou by in Myrtos is a prime example of an establishment of the first phase of the Minoan civilization, before the construction of palaces. The settlement appears to have been founded before 2500 B.C., and had a violent end before 2100 B.C. It was walled, built on a hill, and contained about a hundred rooms in thick array.
Mournies is the birthplace of Eleftherios Venizelos, the most important politician of modern Greece, and you can visit the house that he was born, which today serves as a museum.
Remains of an extensive centre of the Old Palace period (1950-1700 B.C.) have been uncovered.at the site called Gournes, near the village of Apodoulou, at the west foot of Psiloritis. The site dominates the Amari valley and controls the main route to the Messara plain.
The Fort of Kavalos is located at an elevated position east of the village Larani and apparently belonged to a lord of the area who wanted to control his lands.
16km south of Rethymno, near the settlement of Monopari in Varsamonero, there is a steep and isolated hill, encircled by the local torrent. The hill is called Kastellos and, atop of it, the Genoese pirate Henry Pescatore founded one of the 15 forts built by the Genoese all over Crete in 1206. The fort was named Bonriparo (meaning strong fort), after which the village Monopari is named.