Moni Toplou

   



The Moni Toplou located in the northeastern coast of Crete , about 10km east of Sitia and 6km from Palaíkastron the way to the palm forest of Vai .
      Moni Toplou Monastery or Monastery of Our Lady Acroteiriane is one of the most important and beautiful monasteries in Crete .
       The monastery stands the imposing bell tower of 33 meters in a rough, almost desert landscape with giant wind turbines in the background , working in one of the first wind farms in Crete .
      The Moni Toplou impresses far as looks like a small fortress surrounded by a high wall of 10 meters.
The Moni Toplou monastery is the only surviving of the many large and small that were once in the area of Sitia and destroyed by wars and raids .
The abbot of the monastery, Philotheos Spanoudakis has been active to organize and highlight the monastery .     He founded Museum of Greek Folk Etching and Engraving made ​​by monks of Mount Athos in the 18th and 19th century . The monks impressed with their art images of everyday life so faithfully , like using the camera.
      In Moni Toplou saved images from the 15th century, along with other newer , have great visual interest because their stages of growth and development of the faculty of painting of Istanbul , which affected the Cretan Art .
      The value of images of Toplou is invaluable , but also indicative of truly impressive level of education of the monks of the monastery.