Afentis Christos Kalogradon

Not far from Kastelli Fournis village in Mirabelo region and 17km from Neapolis Town, Lassithi prefecture, is the abandoned monastic complex of Keramos. 

The establishment of the monastery is placed before 1615 by members of the Katzaras family. The monastery and its monks are mentioned in documents of the Venetian rule. The monastery appears to have continued its operation during the years of the Ottoman domination. In 1881 according to the census of that year, three monks and four non-monks lived in it.

The once catholicon of the monastery is dedicated to the Transfiguration, and it is a single-nave barrel-vaulted church. The stone-carved doorframe of its entrance located on the southern wall is crowned by a pointed relieving arch of double curvature, in which there is a carved inscription with the date 1644 and the names of the founders Georgios Katzaras, priest and his children Xenophon, Ioannikios and Manuel. The carved altar-screen is also remarkable, with impressive depictions of Adam and Eve. Numerous ruined cells and other habitats of the monastery are preserved in the perimeter of the church.

The church of St. Varvara is located in the southern part of the small plain of Syrmeso , near a small village under the same name1km south of Dories village, 21km north of Agios Nikolaos and 19km from Elounda, Lassithi prefecture and close to Aretiou Monastery and Agios Konstantinos Monastery.

It is a single-nave barrel-vaulted church with a southern entrance crowned with a plain semicircular relieving arch, in the tympanum of which Saint Varvara is depicted. In the years of the Venetian rule, it was a Catholicon of a monastery, habitats of which are preserved on its edges. The best-preserved one is the long two-storey building on the west, with a vaulted ground floor kept in good condition, and its first floor half-abandoned today.

The establishment of the monastery by the monk Nicodemos Kalochrysos, founder of the neighboring monastery of St. Antonios, is dated before 1591. Written reference to St. Varvara is also made in contracts, which were drawn up by its monks, Akakios Alyfantis in 1608, and Malachias Kalochrysos, brother of Nicodemos in the years 1611 and 1615. In 1635 the monastery of St. Varvara in Fourni was registered by the monk Ieremias Amargianitis as a church, owned by the monk Malachias Kalochrysos.