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<The Vrondisi Monastery on the island of Crete
The Vrondisi or Vrontisi monastery and the St. Anthony fountain can be found in the south of the Heraklion district on the Agia Varvara - Zaros - exit to the Vrondisi Monastery - Vorizia route. It is a Byzantine monastery dating from the 14th century, built in the shape of a fortress, and surrounded by thick walls that had to protect the church and its inhabitants from pirate attacks.
Now only the walls on the western side remain. The church in the monastery is dedicated to St. Anthony and St. Thomas. It is decorated with frescoes, some of which have remained well preserved. A Venetian marble fountain that can be seen before the entrance of the monastery has. It has an image of Adam and Eve (the faces are no longer intact). The four faces from which the water pour are to represent the four rivers of the Garden of Eden.
The monastery of Vrondisi flourished especially in the 16th and 17th centuries. During the fifth Ottoman Venetian war that lasted from 1645 to 1669, when Crete fell and the Turks plundered the famous Arkadi monastery, the monks who survived fled to the Vrondisi Monastery. In the 19th century, the monastery was a center of resistance to the Turkish occupiers until the Turks killed the monks in 1866 and burned the harvest. After that the monastery remained deserted. Many of the church treasures were destroyed.