Monastery Agia Triada (Holy Trinity) in Akrotiri peninsula

• A visit to this monastery is part of our Road Trip Akrotiri with hike to the monastery Katholiko.

The monastery Agia Triada lies surrounded by large fields planted with olive groves, vineyards and cypress trees at the north east area of the  Akrotiri peninsula. A parking lot is in front of the main entrance, and hopefully you will not count a lot of tour buses here.

Inside the monastery

An amateur photographer needs at least 1 hour inside the monastery, you can easily shoot about 100 photos on a visit. The architectural details of the Cretan Renaissance makes Agia Triada one of the most important examples of this era in Crete. In combination with the monastery’s atmosphere, the place is an oasis for the eyes and the soul.

To the left of the main entrance there is a museum and shop with cheese, olive oil and wine. Grapes and olives are cultivated by the monks in their surrounding fields. You can even taste the different wines in a special room of the museum. Dozens of cats, many of them tame, patiently wait for lunch outside the kitchen door. Depending on your luck or misfortune, numerous international visitors (many with tour buses) admire the many icons in the main chapel. Do not fail to go upstairs on the monastery’s walls for more views from on high.

Agia Triada – A little history

The Patriarchal Monastery of Agia Triada Tsagarolon is one of the most important monasteries of the end of the Venetian Empire in Crete with a great contribution to the History and Education of the island. According to the tradition that is also confirmed with documents from the archives of Venice, it was built by the brothers Jeremiah and Lorenzo of the old Venetian family of the Zagaroloi, who were monks in the nearby monastery of Gouverneto.

The land owners of Akrotiri offered extensive areas for building the new monastery Agia Triada and Jeremiah traveled to Mount Athos to copy the construction plans for the new monastery.
During the Greek Liberation Revolution of 1821, the Ottomans burnt down the monastery, which was deserted for a few years. During that period the documents kept in its archives were lost. The monastery was renovated in 1830. In 1892 the Church School , which trained famous priests and teachers, was also erected here and in 1930 it evolved into a seminary (Ieratiki Scholi).

The Holy Trinity (Agia Triada) Monastery is probably the most impressive monastic complex of the final period of Venetian rule on Crete, due to both its scale and architectural form. It combines elements of the Orthodox monastic style with western architectural forms and this reflects the spirit of convergence of the two dogmas on the island of Crete. The fortress-like complex forms a huge rectangle with an impressive Catholicon church in the centre and two small chapels, in the style of Orthodox monasteries. Its prevailing features are austere symmetry and use of classic antiquity forms.

Source: orthodox Crete and Chania tourism

• 4 km further to the north following the same road, lies the Monastery Gouverneto – one of Crete’s oldest monasteries