Toplou Monastery

Toplou stands isolated in bare hills near Crete's eastern tip, built like a fortress with high blank walls, a single gate and a tower, which it needed: the name comes from the Turkish for cannonball, after the artillery the monks kept for defence. Founded in the fourteenth century and rebuilt after earthquakes, it encloses a courtyard with a fifteenth-century church and cells, and its treasure is the icon Lord, Thou Art Great, painted by Ioannis Kornaros in 1770: sixty-one miniature scenes illustrating the prayer for the blessing of the waters, executed in astonishing detail on a single panel. The monastery also holds engravings and manuscripts and produces organic olive oil and wine from its estates, sold at the gate.

History

The monastery is believed to date from the 14th century, the age of the frescoes in the northern nave of its church, its oldest identifiable part, though the original foundation date is unknown. Muslim corsairs sacked the undefended monastery in 1498, and after a strong earthquake brought it down in 1612 the Venetians used the rebuilding to fortify it against corsairs; its name means "of the place of the cannon" (Wikipedia, Toplou Monastery).

What's there

• The Kornaros icon - sixty-one miniature scenes in a single panel of 1770.
• The fortified walls - a blank-walled monastery built for defence.
• The courtyard and church - the fifteenth-century core of the complex.
• The museum rooms - engravings, manuscripts and monastic objects.

When to go

Spring and autumn; the surroundings are dry and glaring in summer. The monastery keeps a midday break and modest dress is required. It combines easily with a trip to Vai.

Things to know

The site is small and the visit short, under an hour for most. Photography inside is restricted. The setting is arid and treeless, which some find bleak and others striking.

Nearby

The Vai palm forest lies fifteen minutes northeast; Sitia is west along the coast.

Key facts