On the margins of last weekend’s Festival of Alternative Tourism, a meeting was held at the Chania City Hall on Saturday 17th May, to discuss the possibilities for developing religious and pilgrimage tourism in Chania. Those present included the mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis, the deputy mayor for Tourism Nektarios Psaroudakis, the Metropolitan of Belgium Athenagoras (also Exarch of the Netherlands and Luxembourg and head of the Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union) and representatives of Patriarchates and Orthodox Churches in other countries. Local institutions were also represented, by figures such as the president of the Hoteliers’ Union of the Nomos of Chania Manolis Stamatakis, president of the Chania Trade Association Dora Kyriakaki, and director of the Orthodox Academy of Crete Dr Konstantinos Zorbas.

As was mentioned during the meeting, Metropolitan Athenagoras was responding to an invitation from the mayor to visit Chania following discussions begun in Brussels in December 2024, with a view to signing a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Municipality and the Offices of Orthodoxy in the European Union.

“We have come here representing different Orthodox Churches from different countries so as to establish cooperation between the Municipality of Chania and the Holy Metropolis of Kydonia and Apokoronas, to boost religious tourism in the beautiful area of Western Crete,” Athenagoras said, expressing the wish that the cooperation will continue and that “we can bring people here to become acquainted with the area’s wealth, its culture, but above all the Orthodox presence here, not only the history of its presence but also the experience of Orthodoxy.”

Specifically, also at the meeting were representatives from the Patriarchates of Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, from the Churches of Cyprus and of Poland, and from other Metropolises of the Orthodox diaspora, as well as journalists and tourist agencies.

The mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis described the event as one more step in the initiative taken by the deputy mayor for Tourism Nektarios Psaroudakis and his colleagues. “Our aim is to strengthen and to promote this particular alternative form of tourism,” he said, adding that this is a way to show off the comparative advantage of Crete and of Chania in regard to its rich historical, cultural and religious heritage.

Mr Psaroudakis said that the presence in Chania of representatives of religious and pilgrimage tourism from six different countries constitutes “a journey of familiarisation with experiences which the visitor can live through here.” … “We will shortly be starting a collaboration with these countries to develop the religious tourism model, which is viable throughout the year,” he added.

Nikos Tzatzanis, a member of the Religious Tourism section of the Municipality’s Tourism Committee, stressed the importance of the visit by members of other Orthodox Churches, journalists and travel agents to Chania to become acquainted with local culture. “We will be drafting a Memorandum, which will not be signed (the election of the new Metropolitan of Kydonia and Apokoronas needs to come first), to define the objectives and how this vision for the Nomos of Chania will be implemented,” Mr Tzatzani said.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the mayor gave Metropolitan Athenagoras a Cretan knife, a symbol of the Cretans’ struggles for freedom. Accepting the gift the Metropolitan said that he would keep it inside its sheath as a symbolic act of peace and, referring to the wars which are currently in progress around the world, he expressed the hope and the wish that they would end.
(Haniotika Nea, 19/05/25)

Religious tourism in Kolymbari

Although firmly entrenched in the “sun, sea and sand” model of tourism which prevails along the northern axis of Crete, the Kolymbari area also has a number of cultural assets which fit the religious tourism model, of which the most prominent is the complex comprising the Gonia Monastery and the Orthodox Academy of Crete.

The Gonia Monastery
Begun in its present form in the early 17^th century, the Monastery has a wealth of historical associations. It witnessed the first landing of the Ottomans on Crete in 1645, when it was heavily bombarded, as it was again in 1652, 1822, 1841, and finally in 1867, during the Cretan Revolt against the Ottoman Empire (it has an iron cannonball embedded in an outer wall as a souvenir of this last attack). It was also bombed by the Germans during World War II and became the staff headquarters for German officers during the occupation.

In modern times it has become a religious centre for the area, drawing masses of local people for the main events of the Orthodox calendar. At the same time its historical value is a plus for the thousands of tourists who visit the area in summer. Its basement museum contains many masterworks by 17^th and 18^th century icon painters, along with books and manuscripts, vestments and other religious regalia. While we would guess that few of the hundreds of visitors who climb the hill from Kolymbari in the summer heat are deeply interested in living “the Orthodox experience” as mentioned by Metropolitan Athenagoras, the reality is that the entrance fees must bring substantial and much-needed income to support the maintenance of the building.

The Orthodox Academy of Crete
The Orthodox Academy of Crete was created in the early 1960s, through the efforts of the late Eirinaios Galanakis, then Bishop and later Metropolitan of Kissamos and Selino, on 60,000 sq m of land donated by the Gonia Monastery for the purpose. He was assisted by his pupil Alexandros K. Papaderos, later to become the Academy’s first Director. Building began in 1965 with financial support from the Evangelical Church of Germany who, according to the Academy’s website “wanted to give the people of Crete a token of repentance and reconciliation in a place closely connected with the Battle of Crete”. The conference centre with its pseudo-Minoan pillars was added 30 years later, and inaugurated in November 1995 by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomeos.

From its beginning the Academy’s stated aim was to form a bridge between religions, and between religion, science and culture. To this end it holds numerous conferences throughout the year, on subjects often claimed to be of cutting-edge scientific interest, but always in a somewhat uneasy alliance with Christian interpretations. The Academy advertises a strong interest in the environment, saying that ecological principles coincide with Christian ones. It has in recent years installed solar panels on the roof of the conference centre which supply much of the Academy’s needs in electricity.

While the Academy grounds are open to the public, the fact that it is mostly in use for conferences means that there is little at present to attract the casual visitor. However, a “devotional path” in the grounds can be visited and is popular with overseas visitors. Constructed over the past 25 or so years by visiting students of the School for Garden and Landscape Architecture in Rheinland-Pfalz, in Germany, it is described as “a natural stone pathway in harmony with the natural environment. [The] work, which includes mosaic floors, paths and walls, is inspired by Biblical motives and Holy symbols of the Christian Tradition.”

At the same time, the Academy’s facilities, which include conference rooms, chapels, a library and a museum of Cretan herbs, are all capable of being used for more organised activities. For example there are regular iconography seminars, including 7-10 day intensive courses for groups from outside Crete and overseas.

The original Academy building is in the middle of a 2-year €3 million restoration programme funded by the EU. As the director Dr Konstantinos Zorbas was among those attending the meeting on 17^th May, perhaps after its completion we will begin to see it take a more organised approach to religious and devotional tourism.