Ayia Triada

Ayia Triada Review

Ayia Triada was destroyed at the same time as Phaistos, which is only a few miles away on the other side of the same hill. It was once thought to have been a summer palace for the rulers of Phaistos but is now believed to have consisted of group of villas for nobility and a warehouse complex. Rooms in the villas were once paneled with gypsum slabs and decorated with frescoes: the two now hanging in the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion show a woman in a garden and a cat hunting a pheasant. Several other lovely pieces, including finely crafted vases, also come from Ayia Triada and are now also on display in Heraklion. Though the complex was at one time just above the seashore, the view now looks across the extensive Messara plain to the Lybian sea in the distance.