page_title: Arkadi Monastery
section_title: Powder magazine
hierarchical_section_title: Arkadi Monastery / Architecture / Powder magazine
caption_attribution_description: English: Inscription in the gunpowder storeroom of the Monastery of Arkadi
context_page_description: The Arkadi Monastery is an Eastern Orthodox monastery, situated on a fertile plateau 23 km to the southeast of Rethymnon on the island of Crete in Greece.
  The current catholicon dates back to the 16th century and is marked by the influence of the Renaissance. This influence is visible in the architecture, which mixes both Roman and baroque elements. As early as the 16th century, the monastery was a place for science and art and had a school and a rich library. Situated on a plateau, the monastery is well fortified, being surrounded by a thick and high wall.
  The monastery played an active role in the Cretan resistance of Ottoman rule during the Cretan revolt of 1866. 943 Greeks, mostly women and children, sought refuge in the monastery. After three days of battle and under orders from the hegumen of the monastery, the Cretans blew up barrels of gunpowder, choosing to sacrifice themselves rather than surrender.
  The monastery became a national sanctuary in honor of the Cretan resistance. 8 November is a day of commemorative parties in Arkadi and Rethymno. The explosion did not end the Cretan insurrection, but it attracted the attention of the rest of the world.
context_section_description: Before 1866, the powder magazine was in the southern part of the interior. Slightly before the Turkish attack, and in fear that it could easily be broken into and the monastery blown up, the munitions were moved to the cellar, which was situated approximately 75 centimetres below where it had been originally placed, which was more secure. The powder magazine is an oblong vaulted building. It is 21 metres long and 5.4 metres wide and was destroyed entirely during an explosion in 1866, with the exception of a small part of the vault in the western part of the room.
  In 1930, the archbishop Timotheos Veneris placed a commemorative inscription which was fit in the eastern wall in remembrance of the events of 1866. The inscription reads:
  The flame which lights the depths of this crypt
  was a godly flame in which
  
  the Cretans perished for freedom
caption: Commemorative inscription
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