The powder magazine
Shattered walls left as they were since 1866.
Prekario โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Dietmar Rabich โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Dietmar Rabich โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Dietmar Rabich โ CC BY-SA 4.0
Because what happened there in 1866 entered Cretan consciousness as **an act of choice rather than a defeat**: hundreds of civilians, mostly women and children, preferred death to surrender. Crete commemorates it every year on **8 November**, a regional holiday. More importantly, the event was **internationalised**: the European press carried it, **Victor Hugo**, Garibaldi and others wrote about it, and solidarity committees formed, so the "Cretan question" became a European cause that pressed on the Ottoman state for decades until the island gained autonomy and then union with Greece in 1913.
**Combine it with Rethymno** โ the monastery is in its hills, about 25 km from the town and 80 from Heraklion. The best order by car: set out in the morning for **Arkadi** (an hour and a quarter, an hour there), then drop down to **Rethymno old town** for lunch and a wander through its Venetian and Ottoman lanes, its **Fortezza** and its little harbour, returning in the evening. โ Without a car: a bus to Rethymno then a local bus to the monastery (few; check the timetable) โ or an organised tour. โ And remember **modest dress**.
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**Crete's foremost national symbol**, a monastery in the hills of Rethymno ringed by cypress and olive. Its church front, Venetian Renaissance of 1587, is among the handsomest in Greece โ but its fame rests on a single event. In **November 1866** Crete rose against Ottoman rule, and some **nine hundred people**, mostly **women and children** from the surrounding villages, took refuge in the monastery, protected by a few hundred fighters. A large Ottoman force besieged it with artillery for two days until it broke through the gate. When the fall became certain, the abbot ordered the **powder magazine** in which the refugees had sheltered to be fired โ and the building exploded with everyone in it, besieged and besiegers together. Hundreds died in an instant, having chosen that over capture. The event shook European opinion; Victor Hugo and others wrote about it, and it became an international cause that pushed towards Crete's eventual independence. **UNESCO** designated the monastery a European monument of freedom. โ The blown **powder magazine** still stands, its shattered walls left as they were.
Shattered walls left as they were since 1866.
Venetian Renaissance of 1587, columned and arched.
Cypress, olive and gold stone โ a calm that contradicts the story.
Arkadi Monastery, 74100 Rethymno, Crete