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Places near Karydi Fournis
The monastery of the Holy Cross in Kardamoutsa is currently not manned, but was in the years of Venetian and Ottoman domination, a major male monastery. According to archival sources (Chronaki 1997, 251-254) and the inscription on the belfry which states the names of its founders and the funerary inscription on a founder’s gravestone, the foundation of the monastery by brothers Katzaras, monks Makarios, Manasses and Xenophon can be placed between the years 1570 and 1580 (Iliakis 1989).
The monastery of the Holy Cross in Kardamoutsa is currently not manned, but was in the years of Venetian and Ottoman domination, a major male monastery. According to archival sources (Chronaki 1997, 251-254) and the inscription on the belfry which states the names of its founders and the funerary inscription on a founder’s gravestone, the foundation of the monastery by brothers Katzaras, monks Makarios, Manasses and Xenophon can be placed between the years 1570 and 1580 (Iliakis 1989).
The catholicon is a single-nave barrel-vaulted church with corners of carefully carved stonemasonry, decorative glazed plates in the east pediment and at the sanctuary niche a stone-carved ‘agiothyrido’ (agiothyrido stands for ‘gate of the saints’, and it is the name given to the east-facing sanctuary window of Greek Orthodox churches).
The monastic complex developed around the church, and was constructed in several construction phases. The catholicon and the core of the northern complex, which probably housed the kitchens, belong to the first construction phase from 1580 to 1590. In the second phase of the early 17th century warehouses were added, a two-storey building serving as abbot’s quarters, and a two-storey vaulted refectory.
The olive press was probably made in the third construction phase of the mid-17th century. Apart from the above-mentioned areas and the cells, the abbey also had a cheese-dairy, a guest-house and a vordonareio (stable). The buildings on the south side of the monastery date back to the 18th and 19th centuries.
This 16th century monastery is built against a mountain in a fairly dry and inhospitable place northeast of Neapoli with a distance of 18 km from Elounda tourist resort. The monastery has recently been restored. It is also accessible via an asphalt road that runs from Neapolis to Dories - Karidi - Aretiou monastery.
Within the high walls of the monastery are two beautiful churches, which are very dark inside. The biggest church of the two is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, the other to St. Lazarus. The monastery Aretiou was the most prosperous monastery in the region of the Mirabello Gulf. In the courtyard of the monastery grow cypresses, palms, flowers and fruit trees, especially lemon trees, but also other fruits (that were unknown to me).
Funny are the bell towers which are not in a tower but that are just hanging on a rope between two trees. Both in 1821 and in 1940 the monastery was luted, the first time by the Turkish invaders, the second time by the Germans.
The parish church of Dories village in Mirambello area, is a twin-naved one, with the north nave dedicated to ‘the Equals to the Apostles, Saints Konstantinos and Eleni’, and the south nave dedicated to the Elevation of the Holy Cross. Of particular interest are at the sanctuary niches the relief decorated stone ‘agiothyrida’ (agiothyrido stands for ‘gate of the saints’, and it is the name given to the east-facing sanctuary window of Greek Orthodox churches), the belfry with carved figures of Saints Konstantinos and Eleni and the date 1892, the wood-carved altar-screen as well as some portable post-Byzantine icons kept there.
Based on archival references, this was the site of an important monastery which operated from the years of Venetian rule until the late 19th century (Chronaki 1997, 266, 1994 Psilakis A, 385). To the north of the once catholicon of the monastery remains today a restored vaulted hall, and the entrance of the old courtyard of the monastery, consisting of two consecutive gates.