Location
Church of Saint Paraskevi, Trachiniakos
Trachiniakos, Chania
Church of Saint Paraskevi, Trachiniakos – Trachiniakos, Chania
The Church of Agia Paraskevi in the Trachiniakos district of Kandanos is one of three surviving frescoed churches in this small settlement, alongside the chapels of Agios Ioannis and Prophet Elias. This single-nave, vaulted structure, reinforced by two large buttresses supporting the entrance wall, stands on wooded, humid ground near the site of the former village. Its interior preserves fragments of fourteenth-century frescoes attributed to the workshop of Ioannis Pagomenos, the most renowned painter of western Crete.
Description
The chapel of Agia Paraskevi in Trachiniakos represents the typical late-Byzantine rural architecture of the Selino region: a simple, single-nave stone structure with minimal exterior ornamentation and a light barrel vault. Two massive buttresses reinforce the front wall, indicating repeated repairs carried out over the centuries.
The interior, now heavily damaged by moisture, preserves fragments of paintings with delicate outlines and the characteristic facial modelling associated with the workshop circle of Ioannis Pagomenos. Although difficult to read, the surviving frescoes reveal elements of a classical iconographic programme: images of saints on the side walls and portions of the apse decoration.
The church stands amid what were once fields and orchards, near a stream whose persistent humidity contributed to the deterioration of the masonry and the frescoes. Despite its poor state of preservation, Agia Paraskevi remains an important testimony to the intense religious life of Trachiniakos in the fourteenth century, confirming the significance of this small settlement as a local centre of devotion.
Location
Trachiniakos, Chania
Coordinates: 35.32855, 23.73062