Skip to content
Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/populated-places-in-heraklion-regional-unit

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Agia Pelagia

Seaside resort in Crete

Agia Pelagia

Summary

Seaside resort in Crete

Αγία Πελαγία}}, "[[Saint Pelagia]]") is a popular seaside resort in the municipality of [[Malevizi]], 23 km northwest of Crete's capital city of [[Heraklion]]. In former times, Agia Pelagia was a tiny [[fishing village]] and a place for the residents of nearby Achlada village to grow their crops. Today, the village built at the center of a picturesque amphitheatric bay has been transformed into a bustling tourist resort featuring five-star hotels, traditional seaside tavernas, cafes, bars, internet cafés, ATMs, and souvenir shops.

The village takes its name from the homonymous church, in the Monastery of the Sebbathians, ruins of which are found at a distance of 1 km west of the village. The beaches of the village are popular with locals and tourists because they are sheltered by the rock outcroppings that almost encircle Agia Pelagia Bay.{{cite book|title=Greek islands|url=https://archive.org/details/greekislands00hell|url-access=registration|publisher=Lonely Planet|first=Paul |last=Hellander|edition=4|year=2006| ISBN=1-74059-914-4}}

Agia Pelagia was heavily damaged by the 2022 Greek floods.

Archaeology

The first major excavations at Agia Pelagia were carried out at Cape Souda, near Evresi Cave, by Sir Arthur Evans. It was archaeologist Stylianos Alexiou, along with Dr. Athanasia Kanta, who performed the majority of later research. Alexiou, and others put forward the hypothesis that Agia Pelagia was the site of ancient Panormos (Ancient Greek: Πάνορμος), also known as Aulopotamos (Αὐλοπόταμος). At the north end of Agia Pelagia Bay, remnants of excavations of the Hellenistic town of Apollonia (), also Apollonia (Ἀπολλωνία) can still be seen.

The legendary archaeologist John Pendlebury classified surface finds discovered at Agia Pelagia as "implied" proof of a Late Minoan settlement there. Post-Minoan graves and the University (Prtanion) of the 4th century BC were found in 1970 at the site "Kladistos" or "Kladotos". Also, there is a nearby cave, with the name "Evresi", where - according to legend - local people found the icon of Agia Pelagia.

The village also has outcrops of blue-greenschist rock which was quarried and used to pave streets and floors of Minoan palaces between 1650 and 1600 BC.

References

References

  1. "Crete: readers' tips, recommendations and travel advice". The Telegraph.
  2. (2022-10-16). "Second person found dead after flash flooding in Crete".
  3. "The Gold Epistomia of Crete". Center for Hellenic Studies-Harvard University.
  4. Pendlebury, J.D.S.. (1965). "The Archaeology of Crete". Penguin Random House.
  5. (2010). "Types of schist used in buildings of Minoan Crete". [[Hellenic Journal of Geosciences]].
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Agia Pelagia — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report