Toplu Monastery

Toplu Monastery has another name – the Monastery of Our Lady of Akrotiriani. It is one of the richest and most beautiful temples in Crete. The date of its foundation is the fourteenth century. Built by the Turks on the site of an earlier structure. Around it built a ten-meter wall with loopholes. Hence the name. Crowd in Greek means "gun". In appearance, the monastery looks like a small fortress. It was created to protect against pirate raids. On the territory there are windmills and a belfry with a height of 33 meters. In different periods of history, the monastery was robbed, destroyed, abandoned. In the middle of the monastery courtyard there is a church with unique icons and frescoes. And in the church museum, which was founded by the abbot of the monastery Filafei Spanudakis, you can see ancient manuscripts, ancient relics and utensils, portraits of monks of the 18th-19th centuries. The cells are located on three floors. In the monastery shop you can buy a Byzantine icon for memory. The museum is open daily, you can visit it in closed clothes. You can get there by bus or rented car. From Sitia go 10 kilometers and from Palecastro 6 kilometers.