Agios Georgios

At an altitude of 244 meters and a distance of about 10 km the road Iraklion - Viannos (detour from the new highway after BI. IP. Heraklion) is the Skalani Kallikratous belonging to the Municipality of Heraklion.

For the first time the name of the village is found in deed of 1271 and also in several papers in the next few years until the first Venetian census of 1577 From this inventory and then find it in all subsequent incurred to date, integrated in different municipalities according to the administrative reforms of each season.

It is a village with a strong presence in history and tradition in Heraklion, rich vineyard and olive products and industrious and hospitable people.

The Skalani is the last village in Crete that stopped the resistance during the battle and the paratroopers who gave the first "official" victims execution Patriots (Archimandrite Theodossakis and other patriots) in the fight against the German invaders.

In 1980, a research professor at the University of Crete Th. Detoraki, notarial documents in the State Archives of Venice, brought to light at "Aposami" a forgotten monastery of St. Minas (unique throughout the island as far as we know) in Skalani that according to oral tradition was resident bishop of Crete for some years.

The evidence we have for this comes from two legal documents (October 14, 1598 and January 14, 1627) from the records of the Candia notary Nicolas Negri. Sorry, we have no further information on the fate of the monastery after 1627.

It seems that the monastery remained in operation perhaps shortly after the fall of Candia (1669). Today the ruins of the monastery stand at approximately 1500 meters east of the village. The name still sounds today "Agios Minas" and the devotion of the residents maintain the rubble a small shrine in honor of the Saint.

Today the village is full of life and growth. It features traditional and modern shops, butchers, hairdressers, salons, clinics, pharmacies, services, winery , raki, focal centers - restaurants, taverns, ouzo and meze , constituting a "small Heraklion" in the Region of Heraklion.

The active Cultural Association of the village organizes a number of events in stable and recurring basis, such as two-day festival in celebration of St. John (August 29) with a procession of the image of the Holy (accompanying the Municipal band) and traditional music festival, function and expression in the chapel of Agios Nikolaos in Siganou, festival of Agia Irini in Santorini (May 5), feast of Our Lady (August 15), Halloween events, musical evenings and other summers.

The visitors can visit several places of natural beauty ( Siganos mill , Agios Minas in "Aposami" , etc.) or to follow natural paths as in Canyon of Karteros - Skalani with recreation area next to the wooden bridge, the pine forest of Agia Irini in Spilia and more. Visitation is also the very well organized «Vegetable municipal garden» in the village.

Is Great accommodation in the village square with its picturesque cafes , from where a sound traditional music and the village has a large and famous traditional musicians, authors and artists (Abyssinia, Vassilakis Papadoperakis Thomas and Aspasia, etc..).

 

http://rural-heraklion.gr/ 

About a kilometre Southeast of the village Skalani, Heraklion in the region which bears the name Aposami is that today survives from the medieval monastery of Agios Minas.

Built in an extremely fertile area surrounded by vineyards and olive groves endures until today the fate of abandonment and desolation as so many unknown monuments and treasures of this place.

Among tulips and other flowers that grow in the area of stands today without roof and walls that their wounds are not hiding ... more It is the only monastery that has been recorded in Crete where whoever celebrates the Agios Minas and the oral tradition it wants to play a great role having been residence of Metropolitan of Crete. The Agios Minas remained forgotten by everyone until the 1980s when a research professor, University of Crete, Theocharis Detorakis in notary documents ofState Archives of Venice brought out of the shadows into the light.

There is a testimony of 1598 lent the monastery's lands for cultivation and a second, more important of 1627 that informs us that the monastery has collapsed which causes the Piero Salamon to take steps to repair the damage. After 1627 we have no testimony to St. Minas and the Turkish invasion of the island would have had the same path with many other monasteries that were destroyed and depopulated.

 

http://rural-heraklion.gr/