⭐ Travel Guide for Island Crete ⛵, Greece❗

Major cities of Crete are home to impressive architectural structures, mainly from the Venetian and the Ottoman Era. Forts, scenic harbors, palaces, fountains and temples are the main attractions of the cities. On the other hand, the interesting attractions in the hinterland include arched bridges, water and wind mills, aqueducts, cisterns and chapels.

Venetian and Ottoman architectural patterns, combined with features of folklore architecture, are evident in contemporary houses. Arched gates since the Venetian era, and sahnisi (protruding covered balcony) since the Ottoman era, are some of the features used even today.

The traditional rural house is an evolution of the prehistoric home dwelling; it is constructed with stone, branches and soil, while wooden beams support the roof. To the interior, there is space for animals, while the main features include a stone-built wine press covered by with a wooden platform, a fireplace for cooking and heating, and some niches in the walls for storing household utensils.

Some of the most interesting traditional buildings, perfectly adapted to the needs and particularities of the mountainous areas of Crete, are mitata. They are round domed buildings, made solely of dry stone, being an evolution of the domed Minoan tombs. Mitata provided shelter to shepherds and were used for milking goats and cheese-making. They are met in all ranges of Crete, but Nida plateau near Anogia is the most famous place to come across such constructions.

Eleftherna Ancient Bridge

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The ancient bridge of Eleftherna was built in the first half of the 4th century and is preserved in excellent condition, crossing the torrent Chalopotas. Nearby there was another twin bridge that has not survived. It has a length of 9.5 meters and a width of 5.25 meters. It has a characteristic shape, as there is no arch, but a triangular opening (ekforic architecture).

Demati Bridge

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Near the village of Demati there is a wonderful arched bridge, built by the locals to cross the longest river of Crete, Anapodaris.

Chochlakies watermill

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Sitia province, because it hosts many springs, hosted several places with watermills. Almost every village hosted one or more mills, unlike most places of Eastern Crete where windmills were used, because of the lack of water. One of the best preserved watermills that is still preserved in a very good condition is the watermill of Chochlakies. Chochlakies is a very small village with a very few residents today at the eastern end of Crete. The watermill of Chochlakies is built on the east end of the village, right on the path that leads to the gorge of Chochlakies and the beach of Karoumes.

Karydaki Aqueduct

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Here we meet the imposing Venetian aqueduct of Morosini at position Karydaki, which crosses the river that runs through Sylamos Gorge and ends at Knossos. If you cross the bridge you can visit the ruined church of Panagia Karydakiani monastery, on the opposite site.

Settlement Kalathiana

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The innerland of Crete is full of deserted villages. One of the most impressive deserted villages of Crete, which was quite large, was Kalathiana, located between the villages of Makres and Moroni. Kalathiana was a victim of the general urbanization the prevailed in Crete after the end of the Second World War and was totally deserted at '70s.

Limnes windmills

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East of Limnes village, near Agios Ioannis church, we still meet two of the several windmill parks of Crete. Each park still hosts six windmills in a row (twelve overall), with the roofs being collapsed. These mills are of the more usual mill type, that turns only in a certain wind called Axetrocharis (this has a rectangular shape).

Kakodiki Bridge

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In 1903, the independent Cretan State built a single arched bridge called Kamara that collapsed in 2018. It was 10m wide and very inclined. The place can be accessed by a dirt road that stops here. It was very tough to locate the bridge due to the lush vegetation.

Moussi

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Near the villages of Episkopi and Mourtzana, in a lush green valley, we still see the ruins of the houses and the watermills of the village Mousses or Moussi. In this village we meet the five watermills that took advantage of the abundant water of the area for grinding grain of the surrounding villages. The mills operated till the 1950s, when the modern technology surpassed the traditional way of grinding. Thus, the millers who saw their job diminishing, had to leave this wonderful place and seek their future elsewhere.

Architecture

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