Kyliaris Watermill at Stilos
Very close to the village Stylos in the province of Apokoronas, the visitor can visit the largest watermill in Crete, built on the river Kiliaris. Created by people in the embrace of nature, the Venetian monasterial watermill of Stylos, was the largest watermill in Crete with 5 water outlets and the only one that operated with wagons that brought water to the impellers.
It consists of two rooms. A small one, which played the role of the warehouse but also functioned as a rest room for the miller and a large one that was divided in two by an arc which separated the milling workshop from the waiting area of the visitors who came for grinding. Its use was seasonal and operated from September to March. In recent years, on the west side of the mill, a factory was operating for the milling needs of the locals, from which only the iron press survived. The mill stopped operating permanently in the 1960s.
At the beginning of 2000, the area was recovered and cleaned by the Office of Byzantine Antiquities. In 2004, the restoration study was approved and the river was temporarily diverted, as well as the opening of the road and the additional cleaning of the surrounding area. In 2007 the restoration works were carried out. The aim of the promotion was to be visited by visitors and educational purposes, within the framework of Environmental Education programs carried out in the schools of Primary and Secondary Education.
In addition, it is part of a large nature and historical path that crosses historical monuments of the area from north to south province Apokoronas. It is worth mentioning at this point that the watermill of Stylos belonged to a wider network of watermills in the area, since the Venetians utilizing the waters of Kiliaris, built in their path many of them (watermill of Kalyves etc.).
