All that is left of this prestigious Roman city is a huge field of ruins, a jumble of stones scattered over several hundred metres beneath the olive trees. The ruins evoke the past glory of Gortyn, capital of Roman Crete and seat of its first Christian bishop. Legend holds that this is where Zeus married Europa under the plane trees, thus granting them the privilege of remaining forever green.

The famous Diktean Cave or Psihró Cave is supposed to have sheltered Rhea when she gave birth to Zeus (700-500 BC), the future master of the gods and of the universe. It was a shrine from the Minoan period to the Archaic period (2000-1450 BC) and it has yielded many cult objects: altars, bronze statuettes, miniature double axes, etc. The path descends (about 60m) past huge rocks to a little lake. The cave contains a variety of stalactites and stalagmites.

At the seaside resort of Eloúnda, turn right into a road with hairpin turns in the direction of the bay. It leads to a track suitable for vehicles that runs through onetime salt pans created by the Venetians. At the end of the track by two pretty stone windmills the road crosses a bridge over a canal that was dug through the neck of the Spinalónga peninsula in 1898 by French soldiers. On the right are the remains of the ancient city of Oloús.

The interior of this church contains six remarkable icons by Mihális Damaskinos who worked in Venice and the Ionian Islands from 1574 to 1582 before returning to Crete. These works, which were formerly at the Vrondissí Monastery, combine the traditional Byzantine formality of composition and picturesque realism with the Italian feeling for form. Compare the unusual scene of the Council of Nicaea, in the Byzantine style, with the Last Supper and Adoration of the Magi, which owe much to Tintoretto.