Crete Travel Guide

This itinerary will take us to Cape Kydonias to the east of Chania. Here, at a distance of 15 km from Chania town is the airport. We set off from Chania in the direction of the airport, and after 4.5 km come to a road which climbs away to the east, up Profitis Ilias hill.

Here the revolutionaries calling for the union of Crete with Greece rallied for the first time in 1897, and here the Greek flag was raised in February 1913 to mark the achievement f their aspirations.

The tombs of Eleftherios and Sofoklis Venizelos are located here. Further to the east, we come to Korakies and Aroni, quaint villages with houses in the traditional style.

Not far beyond Aroni, a side-road to the north leads to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity ‘ton Tsangarolon’, which has a library and a collection of icons and houses the Theological Seminary of Crete. The monastery can also be reached from Profitis Ilias Hill.

Four kilometers of narrow road beyond the Holy Trinity Monastery bring us to the interesting and historic Gouverneto Monastery, or Our Lady of the Angels, dedicated to the Presentation of Our Lady. The monastery is at an altitude of 280 meters and was built in 1548; the fact that this was during the Venetian period can be seen from the Renaissance sculptures on the façade.

One the west side of the monastery is the narthex, with chapels dedicated to St John the Hermit and the Ten Holy Martyrs. Nearby is the cave known as Arkouditissa or Arkoudia, where the goddess Artemis was worshiped in antiquity.

Also close at hand, to the north of the Gouverneto Monastery, are the ruins of the Monastery of St John the Hermit or ‘Xenou’, locally known as ‘katholiko’. This is believed to have been the first Christian church built in Crete, in the sixth or seventh century. One the west coast of the cape we can visit the seaside village of Kalathaki, which has a good beach and tourist amenities. We return to the Holy Trinity Monastery and bear left for the airport, thus completing our circuit of Cape Kydonias.

Now we return to Chania and take the elm-lined road that leads to Souda, 6 km away, the huge natural harbor at the head of the bay by the same name. Souda is the main gateway to the sea not only for Chania, but for the whole of Crete. It takes its name from the Latin word ‘suda’, meaning a narrow channel.