Sklavopoula

The village Sklavopoula is located 21 km southwest of Paleochora, in the southwest of Chania, at an altitude of 660 meters. It is an old village, with about 70 residents, where you will find the ruins of several Venetian buildings and several Byzantine churches.

From Sklavopoula the view is vast: it seems the Libyan Sea, Gavdos and Gavdopoula and the coast of southwestern Crete.

Sklavopoula, like other villages with similar place name, were founded by slaves (Slavs) soldiers of Nikiforos Fokas, who had been settled in Crete in the 10th century.

At a distance of an hour’s walk in the northwest of Sklavopoula is “the Mourtari spilios”, i.e. the cave where he was hiding the leader of the province Selino, K. Kriaris, after the failure of the revolution of 1866.

In Sklavopoula, the visitors can still see the church of the Virgin with the beautiful frescoes and churches of Christ and St. George.