Apokoronas

The Monastery of Saint George in Karydi (in Apokoronas Province) is located about 2km east of Vamos village. The monastery was abandoned for many years but was restored in 1996 and today it is operating normally. The monastery is unique to Apokoronas province and is the most interesting monument of folk architecture in the prefecture of Chania.

The Foundation of the Holy Cross "St. Raphael" is an informal small monastery at position Tria Kamarakia, next to the highway of Rethymnon - Chania, which is mostlycharity- oriented. The main temple is a three-aisled basilica dedicated to the Neomartyrs (Raphael, Nicholas and Irene), the Holy Cross and Saint Ephrem.

The church of St. Nicholas at Kyriakosellia belongs to the most important churches in Crete. Its walls are adorned by frescoes. It is one of the finest samples of Byzantine architecture in the island.

The restored Byzantine Monastery of St. John the Divine is located next to the huge Roman cisterns of the ancient city of Aptera. It is believed to have been built in the 7th century AD, as a dependency of the Monastery of Patmos island, under the supervision of which it remained till 1964 (when it was abandoned permanently).

At the wider area of Vamos, at the side of the Venetian village Karydi Kartsomado and within close distance from the monastery of St. George in Karydi, we meet the ruins of the small abandoned monastery of Panagia at Katomeri.

Outside the village of Fres, inside a ravine at the really beautiful position Koukou we meet the temple Virgin Mary (Panagia) of Two Rocks. Once a rock detached from the mountain and rolled down the slope. Atop of the rock, the church of Panagia was built. Adjacent there is another rock, both forming an impressive scenery.

The huge platan trees around it hide its presence. Behind the chapel there is a small dark cave, where the tradition wants a shepherd to have found the icon of Panagia and then decided to build the church. The blackened ceil of the cave inspired the name of the church, which locals call Mavri Panagia (i.e. Black Virgin Mary).

The village Kalamitsi of Apokoronas province consists of two separate settlements, Kalamitsi Alexandrou and Kalamitsi Amigdali. The settlements host two churches dedicted to St. Anthony. One of these, near Kalamitsi Alexandrou, hides a small not well known treasure. Saint Anthony, like most churches and chapels in Crete dedicated to St Anthony, is cavernous and has been built in a rock shelter on the edge of a slope.