Arkadi Monastery: Crete's Symbol of Resistance

A Fortified Plateau

Arkadi Monastery sits on a rectangular plateau northwest of Mount Ida at about 500 m above sea level, surrounded by a thick, high wall that gives the interior a fortress-like character, per Wikipedia. The complex forms a near-rectangle, 78.5 m along its north wall, 73.5 m on the south, 71.8 m on the east and 67 m on the west, covering about 5,200 square metres in total. The surrounding Arkadian plateau is fertile, with vineyards, olive groves and pine, oak and cypress forest, and its western edge drops abruptly into gorges that lead east toward Rethymno.

A Founding Nobody Can Pin Down

The monastery's exact founding date is not precisely known, per Wikipedia. Tradition variously credits the Byzantine emperor Heraclius or the emperor Arcadius in the 5th century, with the second theory also explaining the monastery's name. Because Cretan monasteries are more commonly named after a founding monk, some historians instead favour a monk named Arkadios as the real source of the name.

One early traveller's account, from Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, claims the monastery was built on the site of an ancient city called Arcadia.

A Place of Learning

As early as the 16th century, the monastery was already a centre of science and art, maintaining a school and a substantial library, per Wikipedia, a role that predates the fame the siege later brought it by three centuries.

Renaissance and Baroque Together

The current church dates from the 16th century, completed in what Wikipedia describes as Renaissance Revival style with a mix of Roman and Baroque elements, an unusual architectural blend for a Greek Orthodox monastery. The twin bell towers and the ornate scrolled pediment above the main entrance are the most recognisable features from outside, and the facade remains the image most associated with the monastery today.

Other Monastery Buildings

Among the surrounding buildings, the former stables were constructed in 1714 under the hegumen Neophytos Drossas, confirmed by an inscription over the door, per Wikipedia. That building measures 23.9 m by 17.2 m, divided into three sections, and traces of the 1866 battle described below are still visible on its staircase and the window jambs on its eastern wall.

943 Refugees

The monastery played an active role in Cretan resistance to Ottoman rule during the revolt of 1866, per Wikipedia. As Ottoman forces closed in, 943 Greeks, mostly women and children, sought refuge inside the monastery's fortified walls, trusting its thick perimeter wall to hold.

The Explosion

After three days of battle, and under orders from the monastery's hegumen, the Cretans inside chose to blow up barrels of gunpowder rather than surrender, sacrificing themselves in the explosion, per Wikipedia. The blast did not end the wider Cretan insurrection, but it drew international attention to the Cretan cause in a way years of fighting had not.

A National Sanctuary

The monastery became a national sanctuary in honour of the Cretan resistance, with the sacrifice commemorated every 8 November, per Wikipedia. Traces of the battle, including damage on the stables' staircase and window jambs, remain visible on site today, a physical link between the current calm courtyard and the violence that made the monastery famous.

From Windmill to Boneyard

About 60 m west of the monastery stands an octagonal former windmill, later used as a storage room, that commemorates the sacrifice of the Cretans who died in the siege, per Wikipedia. It served briefly as a boneyard after the battle and took its current memorial form in 1910, at the initiative of Dionyssios, then the bishop of Rethymnon.

What's Inside

The remains of those who died in the 1866 siege are kept in a glazed shelf inside the memorial, and the bones themselves clearly show battle scars, pierced by bullets and sword cuts, per Wikipedia. An inscription at the site reads, in the Wikipedia translation, "Nothing is more noble or glorious than dying for one's country."

A Fertile, Defensible Spot

The Arkadian plateau is fertile, carrying vineyards, olive groves and pine, oak and cypress forest around the monastery walls, per Wikipedia. The west side of the plateau falls away abruptly into gorges that run toward Stavromenos, east of Rethymno, a drop that adds to the site's naturally defensible position on its northwest corner facing Mount Ida.

Neighbours in Antiquity

The wider area developed in antiquity partly because of Mount Ida itself, a mountain legend held to be the childhood home of Zeus, which made the region attractive to early settlers, per Wikipedia. Five km to the northeast, the city of Eleftherna reached its cultural peak around the time of Homer and through classical antiquity, with its influence continuing into the early Christian and Byzantine periods, long before Arkadi existed in any form.

A Landscape of Monasteries

Arkadi was not the only significant monastery in this part of Crete. The villages surrounding it are rich in Byzantine relics testifying to the region's early wealth, and the Moni Arseniou monastery, a few km further north, was itself one of the grand Cretan monastic houses of its era, per Wikipedia. The closest village to Arkadi today is Amnatos, about 3 km to the north.

Arkadi is a compact site compared with a full archaeological complex, so most visits are shorter than a half-day stop.

By Car

The monastery is about 23 to 25 km southeast of Rethymno, per Wikipedia. We found no official source confirming a public bus route or fare to the monastery directly, so most independent visitors drive.

On a Guided Day

The private day from Rethymno removes the need to drive yourself, adding ancient Eleutherna and the pottery village of Margarites to the same trip. If you would rather explore Rethymno's own old town first, a walking and gastronomy tour or a segway tour both cover the base town you would set out from.

• Nobody actually knows when Arkadi was founded. Theories range from a 5th-century Byzantine emperor to a monk named Arkadios, and even a claim that it sits on the ruins of an ancient city called Arcadia (Wikipedia).
• The monastery already had a school and a library by the 16th century, well before the 1866 siege made it internationally famous (Wikipedia).
• 943 people sheltered inside the walls during the 1866 siege, the overwhelming majority women and children (Wikipedia).
• The memorial windmill holding the dead's remains only took its current form in 1910, more than 40 years after the siege itself (Wikipedia).
• Battle damage from 1866 is still visible today on the stables' staircase and window jambs, not hidden away in a museum case (Wikipedia).