| Following his return to Constantinople from Crete in circa 1400, the Byzantine scholar Josephus Bryennius wrote to his friend Ghiannoulis De Spigas, contrasting his former harsh environs with the delights of the “Queen of Cities”. The Cretan toponyms he mentions allow the identification of the area in which he lived for about twenty years. It is the mountainous area of Voukolies near the village of Smari in the Pediada District, where a small church dedicated to the Prophet Elijah remains to this day. The ruins of old monks’ cells are still visible around the church. |