endlessrarities (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
endlessrarities) wrote2010-08-28 03:28 pm
endlessrarities) wrote2010-08-28 03:28 pm
Back to Crete...
It's another dingy day in the West of Scotland, and autumn is very nearly upon us. The bushes are covered with dew-spangled gossamer in the early morning, and everything's having a last flush of growth before the cold weather moves in.
To hold back the winter a little longer, I'll return to Crete. This is another one of these monastic sites where the name escapes me - it was located towards the east of the island, and though it must remain sadly anonymous, it's well worth highlighting.
It's quite late in date, by the looks of things. Postdating the Venetian occupation, maybe sixteenth century, perhaps with later modifications, judging by the elegant quoins and Classical touches around the gateways. Although it's a monastery, it's been well fortified, in its attempts to hold back the Turks. Here's the entrance:-
To hold back the winter a little longer, I'll return to Crete. This is another one of these monastic sites where the name escapes me - it was located towards the east of the island, and though it must remain sadly anonymous, it's well worth highlighting.
It's quite late in date, by the looks of things. Postdating the Venetian occupation, maybe sixteenth century, perhaps with later modifications, judging by the elegant quoins and Classical touches around the gateways. Although it's a monastery, it's been well fortified, in its attempts to hold back the Turks. Here's the entrance:-
And inside the courtyard, you find yourself confronting a structure more reminiscent of a tower-house than an ecclesiastical site (though Scots abbots and commendators also often had a tower-house or similar built in to their monastic sites). There's a machicholation above the front door to help deter would-be attackers, and little tiny windows:-
After a week of encountering alien architecture on Crete, this was the first place I'd visited where I felt I was in the presence of something familiar and comprehensible, though in a way it was rather strange. You don't get this kind of setting in Scotland!
And the inner courtyard was extremely lovely:-
I like the tree growing out of the pithos...
The place is still in use as a monastery today, but the monks understandably made themselves scarce while the tourists were around. Once again, I couldn't bring you any images of the frescoes, but they were impressive. And there were a few additional little chapel buildings littered around the place;-
The place is still in use as a monastery today, but the monks understandably made themselves scarce while the tourists were around. Once again, I couldn't bring you any images of the frescoes, but they were impressive. And there were a few additional little chapel buildings littered around the place;-
Oh, and a windmill...
So, if you ever find yourselves in Crete, head eastwards, and see if you can find it. If I remember right, it was almost at the end of the island...
It is well worth a visit.
It is well worth a visit.