Sellia

Sellia is a village in the prefecture of Rethymno, located approximately 35 km far from the city of Rethymno and near the village Myrthios.

Built upon the top of the mountain Sellia, which it was named after, the village of Sellia is located at an altitude of 829 m and overlooks the Libyan Sea.

The village of Sellia is almost 800 years old, since it appeared when the settlements of Kantonia were united in order to protect themselves from the pirates.

The locals mention proudly that their village was never under the Ottoman rule. It has been recorded that in 1866 Resit Pasha tried to burn the village of Sellia, but he was killed and in 1896 quite a few Turks were captured in a battle. The fact that the village never succumbed to the Turks is due to the volunteer group of fighters, who called themselves “Selliano bairaki”.

The Kotsifou gorge is the entrance to the village of Sellia. Great attractions of the village are also the 15 churches dating to the Byzantine period, with the church of Agios Fotis being the most important of them all; the church was built during the lifetime of Nikiforos Fokas.