Paterikos Watermill

One of the most impressive deserted village of the entire prefecture of Heraklion is Kato Astraki at province Pediada. The reason that makes it so important is the wealth of monuments it has.

Within the dilapidated houses of the former village we meet many important Byzantine churches, Minoan graves and other archaeological findings, the stone bridge of the village and several watermills. Only a few meters south of the stone bridge of Astraki we find the stunning watermill of Paterikos, preserved in very good condition and it is of the very few mills that existed in Crete and were double, meaning that the carried through the stone channels was divided into two different fall-towers and so. correspondingly, there were two different rotors for moving the millstones.

Adjacent to Kamara and near the mill there is a large rock which hosted an ancient sanctuary. However, a few years ago the altar was stolen and today there is nothing there anymore.