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FROM IERAPETRA TO PIRGOS (Mournies)
 Pirgos is a lively village 50km south of Iraklion on the Iraklion - Knossos - Kounavi - Houdetsi - Pirgos road. It's at the crossroad for roads leading east to west, and roads leading north to south, and it's easy to miss your direction in this village, since as usual nothing is clearly marked. In the middle of the town close to the little river and clearly marked is the fourteenth century church of Agios Konstantinos and Agios Georgios. The very friendly and proud people in the shop next to the church have got the enormous key and can open the door for you so you can take a look at the beautiful and well-preserved frescoes as well as some old inscriptions dating from 1314. The frescoes on the south aisle are unique in the Byzantine world since they present a series of events in the life of Byzantine Emperor Konstantinos the Great. Events from his birth, childhood, the crowning of his son and the battle on the Milvian bridge are shown.
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| These are the pictures I took driving along the road between Ierapatra and Pirgos via Mournies, through the mountains to Pefkos and Ano Vianos, and then to the valley with the villages of Skinias and Pirgos. You drive through a variety of landscapes on a rather good road. The first part takes you along the coastline out of Ierapetra (never liked that town...) and you have nice views of the sea. There's a lot of agriculture in the aerea, and vegetables are grown in "plastic houses", not always pleasant to see, but I guess it's neccesairy. Than up in the mountains you go and you run into some interesting scenery: green valleys, nice little churches, cliffs, flowers, small villages....hmmm, not bad. When the road goes down again you end up in a green valley, with olive trees mostly, as I remember. There's a river floating through it. Just before entering one of the villages you pass it on a bridge. It was full of alge :), but I like the colour green. |