Greece - Crete, Arkadi Monastery

Arkadi Monastery is located on the edge of the Psilorítis Mountains at an altitude of 500 metres, on a fertile plateau with olive groves, vineyards, pine, cypress and oak trees.

The exact date of the foundation of the monastery is not precisely known. Sometimes it is attributed to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius and sometimes to the emperor Arcadius, somewhere in the 5th century. However, in Crete, it is common for monasteries to be named after the monk that founded the building, which lends support to the theory that Arkadi may have been founded by a monk named Arkadios.

The building of the present Venetian church - with its striking façade of golden stone - started in 1562 and took twenty-five years. The two-nave church with its graceful bell tower stands in the centre of the courtyard. Inside is a beautifully carved iconostasis of cypress wood, executed in 1902 (PiP 2). The surrounding buildings were added during the 1600s (PiP 3)
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By the 19th century it had become one of the most prosperous monasteries on the island and was a centre of resistance against the Turks. During the 1866 rebellion, nearly 300 guerrilla fighters and some 700 women and children took refuge in the monastery. The Turks laid siege to it and after three days broke through the gates on 9th November. As they rushed in, the abbot ordered the ignition of the gunpowder magazine (PiP4), even though civilians were hiding inside. Hundreds of people, Cretans and Turks alike, were killed in the massive explosion. The angry Turks slaughtered most of the survivors.

The tragic event in 1866 made Arkadi Monastery to a national symbol of Crete’s heroic struggle for independence. Arkadi became certainly the most historic monastery of Crete the most sacred symbol of the struggle of the Cretans for independence. It is the theater of the tragic battle of 1866, which opened the way for the liberation of the island in 1898. UNESCO has designated Arkadi as a European Freedom Monument.