The facade and stair
Corinthian columns and a double stair โ Italian, not Byzantine.
Wolfgang Sauber โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท fietzfotos โ CC0 ยท aconcagua (talk) โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท aconcagua (talk) โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**A Venetian-styled monastery in the middle of an olive estate**, half an hour from Chania on the Akrotiri peninsula โ and the best thing about it is that it is not a museum but a **working monastery**. It was founded in the early 17th century by two brothers from Crete's Venetian nobility, **Jeremiah and Laurentios Tzagarolo** โ educated in the Italian manner, so the building came out with a full **Renaissance** front: a double stair, Corinthian columns, and a Greek inscription over the door. It looks nothing like a Byzantine monastery, and that is exactly what makes it worth the drive. The courtyard inside is **wide and ochre-coloured**, with palms and potted plants, the domed church in the middle of it, and a bell tower added later in the 19th century. And the monastery **produces and sells**: organic olive oil from its own groves, wine, vinegar, honey and soap โ the shop is a real part of the visit, not a tourist add-on. There is also a **small museum** of icons, manuscripts and church vessels. It sits very close to the **airport**, which makes it a good last morning before a flight.
Corinthian columns and a double stair โ Italian, not Byzantine.
A wide yard with palms and the domed church at its centre.
Oil, vinegar, honey and soap the monks make themselves.
**The architecture.** Most Cretan monasteries are Byzantine in style: plain stone, low domes, no classical ornament. Agia Triada was built by two brothers of the **Venetian-Cretan nobility** who had studied in Italy and absorbed Renaissance architecture โ so the front came out with Corinthian columns, a double stair and an inscription over the door, closer to a church in Venice than to an Orthodox monastery. The paradox is that inside it is **fully Orthodox**: the icons, the liturgy and the monastic life are all Greek. That combination โ an Italian shell on an Orthodox core โ is the distillation of four and a half centuries of Venetian rule over Crete, and you can see it here in a single building.
**In moderation.** The courtyard is wide and sunny and full of cats, and the shop has things to smell and taste โ enough for half an hour of a child's attention. But there are no activities aimed at children, no screens and no interactive trail, and the little museum of icons and manuscripts will not hold them. โ More importantly, **this is a place of worship** โ quiet is expected and running is not, which can be hard work with an energetic child. The practical advice: make it a **short** stop inside a wider Akrotiri drive, not a destination in itself.
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Akrotiri, 73100 Chania, Crete