Location information

Monastery of Odigitria

Tel: +30 28920 42364

  The Odigitria Monastery is about 70km southwest of Iraklion on the road Iraklion - Agia Varvara - Agii Deka - Festos - Sivas - Odigitria Monastery. The Odigitria Monastery is quite old and although we do not know the exact date of its construction, many icons of the monastery are known to be of the fifteenth century, and an inscription on the outer wall is dated 1568. The Odigitria Monastery has important icons and vestments on display. The Tower of Xopateras (ex-father) to the left of the entrance is named after a hero of the Mesara area, Ioannis Markakis. Markakis, a former priest, defended himself and his family in the tower with a small number of people against thousands of Turks. Eventually the Turks killed them all and beheaded Markakis.

This text is cited Feb 2003 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains images.

Crete TOURnet WebPage
• http://www.crete.tournet.gr/Site.jdp?ID=404 (3 img.)
Crete TOURnet WebPage
• http://www.crete.tournet.gr/MainArea.jdp?ID=180 (1 img.)