Old Windmills

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.
 

The small monastery of Agios Antonios is located in beautiful mountain area,1km south of Dories village, 21km north of Agios Nikolaos and 19km from Elounda, Lassithi prefecture and close to Aretiou Monastery and Agios Konstantinos Monastery. 

The church of St. Antonios was once a Catholicon of a monastery under the same name, located on the south of the village of Syrmeso. It appears to have been built in the late 16th century. It is a single-nave barrel-vaulted church with a southern entrance bearing a plain semicircular relieving arch. A lower and wider narthex has been added to its western side, communicating with the main church through an arched opening. Around the church and on all sides we discern the – abandoned today – monastic complex.

The foundation of the monastery is placed between the years 1591 and 1595 by Nicodemos Kalochrysos from Kastelli Fournis, who was originally a monk in St. Barbara in Syrmeso settlement. In order to build the monastery of St. Antonios, he sought and obtained the necessary land from the wealthy nobles of the region, as shown in a series of contracts. Subsequently, in 1608, Kalochrysos donated this monastery to the monastery of Areti, and in 1617, when the monastery became a nunnery, the abbot of Areti granted its management to abbess Magdalene, who was Kalochrysos’ sister. The monastery of St. Antonios appears to have been destroyed and deserted during the rebellions of the period 1821-1829.