Amnatos is a local community of the Rethymno Municipality in the

Rethymno (regional unit) Rethymno () is one of the four regional units of Crete, Greece. Its capital is the city of Rethymno. Today its main income is tourism. The countryside is also based economically on agriculture and herding. Administration The regional unit Rethym ...

of the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

established by

Kallikratis reform The Kallikratis Programme ( el, Πρόγραμμα Καλλικράτης, Prógramma Kallikrátis) is the common name of Greek law 3852/2010 of 2010, a major administrative reform in Greece. It brought about the second major reform of the count ...

. Previously, it was part of the municipal district of Municipality of Arkadi. Amnatos is a traditional settlement and is classified in Class II, that is of "average cultural value" (''Government Gazette'' 728/21-9-1995). Buildings with Venetian architectural elements are scattered throughout the village. In 2005 Amnatos received an award of the "cleaner and organized traditional community".

Geography

It is located on the northeastern edges of the Gargano mountain, 17 km (10.6 miles) southeast of

Rethymno Rethymno ( el, Ρέθυμνο, , also ''Rethimno'', ''Rethymnon'', ''Réthymnon'', and ''Rhíthymnos'') is a city in Greece on the island of Crete. It is the capital of Rethymno regional unit, and has a population of more than 30,000 inhabitants ( ...

, on the way to

Arkadi Arkadi ( el, Αρκάδι) is a former municipality in the Rethymno (regional unit), Rethymno regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rethymno, of which it is a municipal unit. The municip ...

, at an altitude of 320 m. It has a view of the North Sea and the Cretan mountain Psiloreitis.

Origin of name and history

The location of the village appears to have been inhabited since ancient times and it is believed that the name ''Amnatos'' has Minoan origin. Ancient Greeks used to call ''amnion'' all those vessels used at their time to collect the blood of sacrificed animals. The area was occupied by the Venetians and the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

. Nowadays, the local community of Amnatos consists of four settlements: Amnatos, Kapsaliana (''Καψαλιανά''), Pikris (''Πίκρης'') and the

Arkadi Monastery The Arkadi Monastery (in Greek: / Μονή Αρκαδίου) is an Eastern Orthodox monastery, situated on a fertile plateau 23 km (14 mi) to the southeast of Rethymnon on the island of Crete in Greece. The current catholicon (church) ...

. ;Population of Amnatos

Attractions: monuments, temples, and important buildings

Among the many Venetian buildings in the village of Amnatos, there is a house with a particularly impressive doorframe. The crown of the gable has the inscription: "INITIUM SAPIENTE TIMOR DOMINI" (in English: "The Beginning of Wisdom is Fear of the Lord"). There is also a folk museum and a Municipal Museum of the History of Greek Education. Amnatos is the home village of Harikleia Daskalaki, a heroine of the

holocaust. A statue of her is found in the square of the village.

Transportation

There is bus service ( KTEL) from and to Rethymnon in this area (route for Arkadi Monastery, which has three services on weekdays and two on weekends). ΚΤΕΛ Χανίων - Ρεθύμνου - Αρχική
(Bus timetables, Chromonastiri (in German)]), retrieved 2016-07-09

References

External links

Photo Gallery, Web site of municipality of Rethymnno
retrieved 9 April 2012
ΡΕΘΥΜΝΟ ΔΙΑΚΟΠΕΣ ΞΕΝΟΔΟΧΕΙΑ ΕΝΟΙΚΙΑΖΟΜΕΝΑ ΔΩΜΑΤΙΑ ΒΙΛΕΣ ΚΡΗΤΗ. ΡΕΘΥΜΝΟ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΣ ΦΥΣΗ ΠΑΡΑΔΟΣΗ , Ελληνικά , Καλωσορίσατε στον δικτυακό τόπο του Ρεθύμνου - Τουριστική Προβολή (Cycling routes, Web site of municipality of Rethymnno)
retrieved 9 April 2012 {{Rethymno div Populated places in Rethymno (regional unit)