The Monastery of Agios Ioannis Theologos is located in the east of Anopoleos Pediada, at a distance of 150 meters. The monastery was a successor to another older monastery of Agios Georgios, which was located on the left bank of the Aposelemis stream, approximately 800 meters from the sea. That monastery was abandoned in the medieval years due to pirate raids. The two-aisled church of the monastery was built during the Venetian occupation and was dismantled by the Nazis in 1942. Its materials were used for fortification purposes. The old icon of Agios Georgios was moved to the new headquarters of the Monastery, where it remains today.
After the Cretan Revolution of 1866 to 1869, it was renovated by its founder, who was Abbot Mattheos. In the past, the monastery was stauropigian. It became a parish in 1730 and housed the Primary School (1840-1908) where the later Metropolitans of Crete Timotheus Veneris and Titos Zografidis taught. During the Revolution of 1897, the Monastery was destroyed again and those monks who did not manage to leave it were massacred. The temple, the iconostasis and the icons were set on fire, while some icons were caught and taken by the monks who left. In 1908 the Monastery was renovated by Abbot Kallinikos Daskalakis and since then it has developed. In the monastery grounds there are many interesting portable icons.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou