Crete | Arkadi Monastery

The Arkadi monastery in the hilly country of Rethymno province, comes out at you dramatically like some dusty Mexican mission in a western movie set. Its reddish- brown 16th century walls sit massively on a dry plateau amid vineyards and pinewoods. The monastery achieved fame in 1866 when the abbot, rather than surrender to the attacking Turks, torched the powder magazine and blew himself up and many defenders. You can see the place where it happened, still roofless. One baby survived the blast by being blown into a tree. You enter by the main gate, into a dusty courtyard surrounding a quaint and very mission-style central church, baked a grey-brown by the sun. An adjacent building houses an exhibition of portraits of Cretan freedom fighters of the 19th century, plus their weaponry and banners. There's a KTEL rural bus service to Arkadi from Rethymno. Or you can drive from that town over a very twisty and hilly road on the well-signposted route for 24 kilometres. Some of the route is dramatically scenic. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow us in Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mycrete.tv/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information: https://www.mygreece.tv/en/crete/crete-rethymno ---------------------------------------------------------------------