Agia Pelagia Church
Agia Pelagia church is located in the homonymous settlement (which is 21 km from Heraklion), very close to the famous beach. The church celebrates on October 8th and is one of the most important churches preserved in Crete since the Venetian period. The day of the celebration of the temple, according to a decree of 1519, was declared an official holiday and has been a special occasion since the end of the 19th century—specifically, El. Platakis (in the '70s) describes the procession with the portable icons that crossed the sandy shore and headed to the church of the Evresis (finding), on the roof of which the priests climbed and read the Gospel of the day.
In the past, the church belonged to the homonymous 13th-century Monastery, which was founded thanks to the finding of Agia (Saint) Pelagia’s icon in a cave (named Evresis) north of the beach. In fact, according to tradition, the icon was transported to the Monastery by the faithful pilgrims and then, unknown how, returned to the place where it was initially found. Today, unfortunately, the Monastery does not exist. The church operates as a chapel of the Savvathianon Monastery, in which the coat of arms of the Monastery of Agia Pelagia is kept.
In 1412, in his work "Description of the island of Crete", Cristoforo Buondelmonti refers to the monastery and the fact that a large number of pilgrims, during the feast of the temple, buried their body parts which were in pain in the sand of the beach to be healed. According to a decree of 1519, the celebration day of the temple was declared an official holiday.