Astratigos monastery at Agalantes

Near Karkadiotissa, at the deserted today settlement Agalantes and amid an area with huge oak trees, operated the Venetian monastery of Astratigos (Michael Archangel). The monastery is a dependency of the monastery Saint George Epanosifis.

Despite the long siege of Candia by the Ottomans, this monument has not suffered the devastation experienced by most monasteries around Temenos province and the 15th-century frescoes have survived in relatively good condition. The place still hosts the semideserted monk cells and bases from other buildings.

A few meters away we meet an old aqueduct, Kavousi, in which a spring still supplies water. The church of the monastery is a single-nave vaulted basilica with a prominent low transept.

It is a rare example of cruciform cross-shaped church with elevated longitudinal arch.