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Sights - Chania Prefecture - Akrotiri |
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Korakies |
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couple of kilometres outside Chania on your way to the airport, a road
branches off to the village of Korakies, where you find a beautiful
convent.
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| The
original name of the convent was Agios Ioannis o Vitas. But nobody knows,
who this Vitas actually was. He was presumably the founder of the convent,
or a person under whom the convent has been renovated. Today the convent,
dedicated to Agios Ioannis o Prodromos (St. John the Baptist), is simply
called The Convent or The Convent of Korakies. Its church has two naves:
one to St. John the Baptist and one to Agios Georgios.
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| It
is not known with certainty either, when the convent was founded, but it
existed as a convent as early as in the Venetian and the Turkish periods,
when young girls sought refuge here to avoid persecutions. During that
time the convent had its great period with more than 100 nuns.
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| During
the rebellion against the Turks in 1821 the convent was destroyed, the
nuns murdered and its landed property placed under Gouvernetou Monastery,
where it still belongs.
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| It
was rebuilt in about 1840 but was destroyed again during the rebellion in
1866.
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| The
scientist Vittorio Simonelli visited Crete in 1893. Through his report we
get a vivid description of the conditions in Korakies
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| We
rode up the slopes north of the Souda bay and approached the village of
Korakies, situated on the Akrotiri plateau. To every intact house there
are at least ten ruined - a typical example of the Turkish way of
upholding law and order in Crete. But we also had a great example of the
local people's hospitality, as everyone wanted us to spend the hot midday
hours in precisely their home and to eat staka - a mixture of flour and
boiled milk, which can be quite tasty, if you have got nothing else.
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| The
convent was rebuilt once more. At the end of the 19th century
one
of the nuns lived for a longer period of time with the English ambassadors
wife in Athens, where she was taught embroidery. Since then the convent
has been well-known for its beautiful embroideries, which can still be
seen in its small museum and be bought in its shop.
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