Kritsa about 10km/6.2 miles inland, is touted as a 'traditional village', and though it's highly commercialized, all of the local craft items are sold here
(mostly weaving, embroidery and ceramics, rugs) and prices are decent. The village achieved much notoriety by the filming here of 'He Who Must Die' with Melina Mercouri (a 1956
Jules Dassin film). The town is known for big Cretan weddings and even re-plays of weddings for guests who pay to get an idea of what a Cretan wedding is all about, complete
with food, drink and folk dancing.
Rooms here are better priced than at Aghios Nikolaos as well, and there is a nice plateia. About 2km/1.24miles before you reach Kritsa, is the church of Panaghia Kyra (April-Oct daily 8:30am-2:30pm;2.40 euros) The church, which sits in an olive grove, is one-of-a-kind in all of Crete, with long buttresses, three naves, and a simple bell-tower, and possibly the most complete collection of Byzantine frescoes in Crete, dated from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Many have been touched up a bit. St. Francis, brought by the Venetian Catholics, is represented among the many saints. There are also portraits of the donors with their little daughter, giving us an idea of what medieval Cretans looked like.
Past the church is the archaeological site of Lato (right) (Tues-Sun 9am-3pm; closed first Sun of the month;free) with the remains of a seventeenth-century BC Doric city (actually called Lato Etera), situated on a saddle between two hills with great views in several directions. It was named for the Minoan goddess Leto (Lato in the Greek of the Dorians). Though a large site, it has been neglected in favor of Minoan sites, despite the fact that it illustrates many Minoan influences on Dorian architecture. It is a very impressive site, including a temple (most likely to Leto), an altar, and a small theater, and is worth a visit if only for the views.
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