Asterousia

A few meters east of Ano Kapetaniana, on the road leading to Agios Ioannis, we meet the large single-room temple of Archangel Michael. While externally it looks like a modern church, inside the visitor will be impressed by the frescoes dating back to the Venetian period. Despite the damage they have suffered by time, this is still a superb specimen of that period. On the walls we also see engravings by various travelers of the era.

The church of Saint Andrew is located at location Kaka Pila and was built in the 14th-15th century and is a dependency of Panagia Odigitria Monastery near Sivas. It bears frescoes in good condition.

From the Byzantine monastery still stands the church of Agios Dimitrios (Saint Demetrius) with very old frescoes. In the churchyard there are the remains of the monk cells.

Between the village Sternes and the Monastery Koudoumas, on the wild and arid range of Asterousia, we meet the abandoned village and the church of St. Nicholas (celebrating on December 6th). The church was a dependency of the monastery Koudoumas.

At Asterousia Mountains, because of the very low rainfalls, the existence of a spring of water played a key role during the selection of places to develop settlements. Such a small settlement, in which the existence of springs favored its development was the settlement Goulis Metohi, known to the shepherds mainly a North Agios Nikitas.

The cave church of Panagia at Vithanos is located in a panoramic position of the Loutra Gorge, near the village of Krotos. It is dedicated to Zoodochos Pigi (Life Giving Spring) and one can still see the date 20-5-1765 above the entrance.

The church of Panagia Gorgoepikoos is located at the territory of the village Pigaidakia, near the beginning of the stream that ends on Karavovrissi beach in Kali Limenes. Today only the temple is preserved from the complex that till the beginning of the 20th century was a small monastery.

Lendas is a remote seaside settlement located in the imposing Asterousia Mountains, 74km south of Heraklion. The settlement is built on the site of the ancient city of Levena, which flourished in the Greco-Roman years, as the seaport of Gortyn, which was then the most important city of Crete.