Church of Michael Archangel at Kaminos
Kaminos is a very fertile valley with thousands of olive trees belonging to three settlements: Skalani, Prassa and Kallithea. Kaminos was a Medieval settlement, today disappeared, that hosted three temples; the churches of Archangel Michael, the church of Christ and the church of Saint Demetrius. Saint Demetrius was demolished in the mid of the 20th century for leveling and creating an olive field, but the olive trees (miraculously) never produced olive oil.
Today we see only a small shrine commemorating that there was a temple. The deserted church of Christ, probably by an earthquake, now saves only a crumbling wall. Another collapsed church is the Venetian church of the Archangel Michael. The area where the remains of Michael the Archangel are found is called Kavoussi and was very important because about 100 meters away from the church there was the only well (kavoussi) in the region with water throughout the year. Just north of Kavoussi was located the medieval village of Kaminos atop hill Kefala, which was also built on the site of a naturally fortified Minoan settlement. Kaminos was full of ancient findings and was over-looted by the locals. The only remaining sample of the past is the collapsed temple of Archangel Michael which has no roof. The walls are still standing and someone can notice that frescoes once adorned the interior of the church. The church today is totally forgotten, even during the feast day of the temple nobody comes here.
The area surrounding the temple is full of wild asparagus (in spring). Kaminos is also extremely important because it is the most important habitat of the extremely rare flower Cretan Fagonia (Fagonia Cretica). Until today nobody has been interested in protecting or restoring the temple and it really is an impressive monument that decays in time.
