Agia Paraskevi Travel Guides
Our favourite places around Agia Paraskevi
The sandy Ligres beach, well served by two tavernas, is just five minutes drive away, whilst a ten minute drive will bring you to an excellent fish taverna on the little harbour in Agia Fotini (Agia Fotia). Twenty minutes further west of Agia Fotini the unsurfaced road follows the coast to Swallows Canyon where a palm fringed fresh water lagoon backs the sandy beach below the spectacular hilltop monastery of Moni Preveli.
Ten minutes drive to the east, are the superb beaches of Triopetra and beyond, Agios Pavlos. All the beaches on this stretch of the south coast are sandy and relatively quiet even in high season, with a good half dozen strategically placed tavernas. For bakers, mini markets, banks and a little more civilisation, the hill town of Spili, with its handsome Venetian fountains, is a good 40 minutes drive, so it’s worth stocking up whilst you’re there (we found the delicious bread from the traditional wood fired oven baker froze very well ). Several tavernas offer enticing coffee or lunch stops to make the trip worthwhile.
Walking – In spring and autumn the area is excellent for walkers and there are footpaths to Ligres and Triopetra beaches and also to Agia Fotini and even distant Moni Prevelli.
A Tale of Two Villages
Agia Paraskevi or (St. Friday) is named after the villages 13th century church which until 1979 was cared for by two Greek Orthodox nuns who had lived permanently in the village since the last World War and built a second small church where the square is now located. For hundreds of years the land around the village had been farmed by the villagers of Ardaktos, which stands inland at the head of a precipitous gorge leading down to Agia Paraskevi. From October until June the villagers would stay in Agia Paraskevi, gathering olives and growing wheat before returning to the cooler climate of Ardaktos, during the hottest summer months.
Up until the early 1960s, Agia Paraskevi could boast a population of 30 to 40 inhabitants, but Greek rural life was undergoing dramatic changes and by the end of the 60s the village was deserted, save for the two nuns. In the course of time, the village boys of the 60s became men, took up professions, married and had families. Many of them moved to other towns and cities in Crete, but from time to time, especially when they got together at weddings, baptisms, funerals and so on, they would remember their simple and carefree childhood in Agia Paraskevi.
In the early 1990s, eight of these men formed a loose co-operative and obtained a grant from the Greek Government to restore some of the original dwellings on condition they were rebuilt in traditional style. Later others joined the project and today Agia Paraskevi is a village St Friday would be proud of.
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