THE VILLAGE OF KOUNAVOI ON CRETE

The village of Kounavoi with its 900 inhabitants is situated 15km south of Iraklion just above Archanes on the Iraklion - Knossos - Kounavoi road. The village contains Byzantine churches amongst which the most famous church of Metamorphosis of Sotiras, Agios Nikolaos and Agios Dimitrios (also ‘simply’ called the church of Christos Sotis) which has three aisles and five blue-coloured domes in the shape of a cross, the central one higher than the others.

The story tells that this beautiful blue domed church was build by five unmarried sisters and that each of them build one of the domes. A sign will show you off the main road pointing into a street, but after that it's endless searching because this is the only sign they have placed. The fact that I found this church after a ten minutes walk was pure luck. You might want to ask the locals for directions if you want to take a look at it yourself. You have to walk through streets with houses that are falling apart because it is a little bit outside the village center. Besides three Byzantine churches the village also has a lot of other nice churches.