The monastery of Kremasta is located at a distance of around 2,5 kilometres from Neapolis on the slopes of Mount Kavallara on the route towards the Plateau of Lasithi. According to the dedicatory inscription on the lintel of the catholicon, it was founded in 1593 by Metrophanes Agapetos.
The female monastery of Koufi Petra (Hollow Stone) is built to the west and at a close distance from the monastery of Kremasta, also on the slopes of Mount Kavallara. The only mention of the monastery in the sources is the indirect reference in a contract of the monastery of Areti, in the year 1630, about the “place of the All-Holy Theotokos of Koufi Petra.” The abandoned –for an unknown period of time– monastery was reconstituted in 1866 by the nun, Eirini Chlapoutaki, sister of the then bishop of Petra, Meletios.
The monastery was founded at the end of the 16th century by Markos Papadopoulos, who also bequeathed it great wealth, enough for the upkeep of twelve monks. Notary documents confirm its peak during the 17th century as they mention the multitude of its transactions with other monasteries or individuals.
Agios Georgios Monastery, located in Selinari gorge, was built during the 2nd Byzantine era. The catholicon is dedicated to Saint George. There are two other churches, one dedicated to the Epiphany and the other to the Resurrection. The icon of Saint George, the protector of travellers, is considered to be miraculous and is a traditional destination for worship for passers-by.
The monastery, which celebrates on the Dormition of the Theotokos, is located on the north side of Mount Stavros, a steep elevation west of the archaeological area of Gournies. Its foundation date is unknown even though non-extant sources mention it already at the end of the 13th century, connecting it with the revolution of the Kallergi against the Venetians in 1299.
The monastery of Vidiani is located in the northwest side of the Plateau of Lasithi. It was founded around the middle of the 19th century by the hieromonk, Methodios Perakis, who was its first abbot, in the area of the settlement of Vides, a large family from Lasithi whose name it took.
The foundation and the history of the monastery, the first mention of which dates to 1333 is inextricably linked to the wonderworking icon of the All-Holy Virgin the Kardiotissa [the type of icon where the Virgin holds Christ in her arms above her heart], which according to tradition was painted by St. Lazaros, a monk and icon painter who lived during the period of Iconoclasm.
The monastery of Toplou or the Akrotiriani [All-Holy Virgin of the Cape], as it is called due to its position in the eastern corner of Crete, is one of the most renowned and important monasteries of the island. Its establishment probably dates to the late 14th century, a period during which the original catholicon was erected, dedicated to the Birth of the Theotokos. The monastery acquired its fortified form after its systematic plundering by Turkish pirates that raided eastern Crete at the end of the 15th century.
The monastery of Kapsas is located in the southerneast corner of Crete, on the west side of the exit from the gorge of Pervolakia towards the sea. Even though the date of its foundation is unknown to us, the existence of wall painting decoration, possibly of the 13th–14th centuries, in the aisle of St. John the Forerunner, as well as the engravings which cover a long period, the oldest from 1512 until the more recent in the 18th century, give us secure facts for an early dating of the monument.
Churches
The church of Panagia Kera at Kritsa
The three-aisled, barrel-vaulted church of the All-Holy Virgin ‘the Lady’ with a dome on the nave is located to the south and at a distance of around 500 metres from the settlement of Kritsas. The church is one of the most important visited monuments of Crete because of its extensive and well-preserved wall painting decoration from various periods of Byzantine art.
The metropolitan church, dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos (August 15), rises magnificent in the north corner of the central square of Neapolis. Its erection at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century lasted a long time due to the financial constraints of the period. It had been founded in the year 1889 by bishop Meletios Chlapoutakis, was mostly built by his successor, bishop Titos Zografides, and was completed by bishop Dionysios Maragoudakis who inaugurated it on September 27, 1927
The Early Christian Basilica at Elounda
In the location of the ancient city of Olous, at the isthmus of Poros, the settlement of Alyngos, as Elounda was called in the sources of the sixth century, developed in the early Byzantine period. The most important excavated monuments of the settlements are, until today, the two early Christian basilicas of the 5th century, in the inlets of Poros and Kolokytha of the large natural port of the area.
Church Agios Fokas
The Byzantine chapel of Saint Fokas, which was built in honour of the emperor Nikephoros II Phokas for liberating Crete from the Arabs in 961 AD. It's a bit of a walk from Elounda, some of it quite rough, but worth it.