Agia Triada Monastery, Chania, Greece

The Patriarchal Monastery of Agia Triada Tsagarolon is one of the most important monasteries built during the end of the Venetian Empire in Crete and a great contributor to the history and education of the island. It is located on the foot of Stavros mountain chain, in the area “Tzompomilos” of Meleha cape.

According to tradition that is also confirmed with documents from the archives of Venice, it was built by the brothers Ieremias and Lavrentios Tsagarolon that came from a great Venetian-Cretan family and had a powerful influence in the Orthodox population and the Catholic Venetians.

Within the monastery you may visit the museum with impressive ecclesiastic items, icons and vestments as well as the shop and private wine cellar where you can buy products and wine produced by the monks within the premises of the monastery.

Architecture

The church is built in the Byzantine architectural cruciform style with three domes. The main church is flanked by two smaller domed chapels, one of which is dedicated to the Life-Giving Spring (Zoodochos Pigi) and the other to Saint John the Theologian. The main church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and the church has a narthex at the front set at right angles to the main aisle. There are two large Doric-style columns and one smaller, Corinthian-style column on either side of the main entrance. The facade of the church has double columns of Ionian and Corinthian style and bears an inscription in Greek, which is dated to 1631. The monastery's cellar door is dated to 1613. In the 19th century the monastery was established as an important theological school from 1833, and the belfry is dated to 1864. The monastery was later extensively damaged during conflicts with the Turks and in 1892, a seminary was established.

Museum

The monastery also has a library which contains some rare books,[4] and a museum which contains a collection of icons and a collection of codices. Important exhibits include a portable icon of St John the Theologian dated to around 1500, The Last Judgment, work of Emmanuel Skordiles from 17th century, St John the Precursor (1846), The Tree of Jesse (1853), The Hospitality of Abraham and The Descent into Hades (1855), The Story of Beauteaus Joseph (1858) and a manuscript on a parchment roll with the mass of St Basil.