Saint John Voulgaris Monastery at Melambes

The monastery of Saint John (Agios Ioannis) at location Voulgaris today is uninhabited and only the church of Saint John the Baptist (celebrating on June 24) and a few traces of cells survive. There is also the fountain of the monastery, which still has fresh water from a local spring.

The monastery was founded by the family Voulgaris and operated possibly from the 15th century. It soon gained a large land property, mainly of olive groves.

In about 1770 the monastery became a dependency of the Monastery Asomati at Amari province and was abandoned in 1900. It retained its property until 1956, when it was shared to reservists, and part of it was used to build the temple of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon .