Crete-Discover the Unknown Crete

The Roman villa dates back to the first
century A.D. and has a regular plan with a
central courtyard surrounded by many
rooms including small baths and a semicircular
pool - possibly a fish pond. Judging
from the precious pavement mosaics and
the fragments of marble that decorated the
walls, this was a luxury abode.
The large Minoan villa belongs to the
Second Palace period, it has a surrounding
wall and is divided into numerous rooms
with traces of cobbled flooring. The villa had
strong links with the religious cults of the
Minoans because inside there have been
found stone altars, a chamber for ritual
banquets and a magnificent seal on which
there is inscribed a ship with a sanctuary
floating on the waves, symbol of the sea
gods.
Turning instead towards the line of
coast that leads eastwards, we encounter
the fifteenth-century monastery of Kapsa,
clinging to the high rocks and dedicated to
St John the Baptist. In the mid 1800s the
monastery became the property of the
adventurer Yerontoyiannis, a decidedly
controversial character: repenting of a life
of dissolution he became a monk, dedicating
himself to the poor, healing the sick and
working miracles. Ever since Yerontoyiannis
has been venerated as a saint and every 29 th
August a great feast is dedicated to him at
the monastery.
The ancient
settlements, villas
and monasteries
were rarely built on
exposed stretches
of coast because
the population
feared foreign
invaders coming
from the sea
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