Architecture

One of the large windmill parks of Merambelo district is located at Vrouhas village and consists of nine mills. They all turned only in a certain wind and their type is called Axetrocharis (this has rectangular shape with a round side where the mill is installed). In Crete we meet another type, Xetroharis that is completely circular, turning to all winds.

What characterizes the village Kissos in the province of Agios Vasilios in Rethymnon, like all the villages located in the root of Kentros mount, are the many water springs. In the central square of the deserted village we meet the beautiful square with the old plane tree. Geroplatanos (Old plane tree) are actually two plane trees close to one another, and one specifically is one of the biggest in Crete and has a really impressive trunk.

Elliniki Kamara (i.e. Greek Arch) is an arched bridge built in the Hellenistic Era with some later additions (Venetian and Ottoman Era). The name comes from Hellenistic Kamara. The opening of the arc is 11.10m long, 8.40m high and has a width of 3.00m.

Kolokasia is a deserted village of Sfakia province, near the exit of the gorge Asfendou and near the village of Agios Nektarios. Its inhabitants mainly abandoned it because of its isolated position and moved to Agios Nektarios. Today most of the houses are dilapidated and some have been restored by some Germans who bought the ruined houses and restored them. The houses are a live sample of the simple traditional architecture of Sfakia.

On the European hiking trail E4 connecting Alones to Agios Konstantinos, atop a hill near Moundros village, we meet the deserted settlement of Nissi. Its remaining collapsed houses depict that this place has an important past. Among the dilapidated houses, there survives the church of Saint George, while a few meters away there is the church of Panagia Nissiani.

It is a two-room mill of the years of Venetian rule. It functioned as a mill of any kind of flour, until 1960. It is a unique sample of a mill with two carved stone and wooden water towers “Vagenas” (water pipelines in the rotors).

Near the settlement of Marnellides, Merambelo district, we still meet one of the many windmill parks of Crete. There are still standing 8 windmills in a row, while a little further up the mountain there is a ninth secluded windmill. . Others survive in good condition and others have collapsed. Marnellides mills are of the more usual windmill type of Crete that turns only in a certain wind and is called Axetrocharis (this has rectangular shape). These mills were used for grinding grain.

Next to the lively village Valis of Messara Plain (Heraklion prefecture) you will find Xerokambos, a ruined and abandoned village. The last residents left Xerokambos shortly after the Second World War, during which many villages in Crete were devastated. There are houses that still stand, where youcan admire the unique typical architecture of Cretan cottages, all built with stone.