Hike to the Church of Saint John in Douliana

Round-trip distance is 5 kilometers

Entry Gate, Church of Saint John, Douliana.  Foundation for Gavalochori.- Things to See & Do | Gavalochori
Entry Gate, Church of Saint John, Douliana. Foundation for Gavalochori.
Entry Gate, Church of Saint John, Douliana.  Foundation for Gavalochori.- Things to See & Do | Gavalochori
Entry Gate, Church of Saint John, Douliana. Foundation for Gavalochori.

If you spend any time at all in the Gavalochori area, you are likely to drive past the village of Douliana (Ντουλιανά) many times. But it can also be accessed on foot via a trail from Gavalochori. The trail is 2.5 kilometers (1½ miles) long each way and lets you out near the middle of the village of Douliana. The trail passes through a variety of interesting landscapes and past a church built into rocks that form a cave.

Much of the trail to Douliana has been marked by the Chania Trails Project, but at key points, some of the signage appears to be missing. So while the Chania Trails Project markings are useful along much of the trail, be aware that some key directional decision points along the trail are not marked.

Much of the route is easily traveled using walking shoes; however, there are some segments of the trail that contain loose rocks and very rough rock stairs. You might appreciate light-duty hiking shoes on these segments.

You’ll begin the hike in the main square in Gavalochori, and you want to follow the signs to the museum.

Go past the Folklore Museum and the large church (the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus) on your right. Continue on the road as it crosses a small bridge and then begins to rise.

When the main road veers left toward the old school, keep walking straight ahead on a smaller, less used road. Follow this road as it winds past houses and open fields.

Stay on the road as it travels down a steep hill toward a large stream bed. Before you get to the stream bed, you will see a small road on your right. It leads to Saint Anthony’s Church (the church isn’t visible from the main road). You might want to stop here and have a look—the trail into the church isn’t very long. This is a church you can enter because the key is usually left in the lock on the door.

A very old church dating back at least to the 17th century, the Church of Saint Anthony incorporates a small cave in its construction and was where Christians prayed secretly during Turkish rule. In the late 17th century, a group of nuns settled around the church, and nuns continued to be associated with the church over the next two centuries. One report states that between 1850 and 1865, three nuns lived at the church, keeping goats, hens, and turkeys and spinning wool, cotton, and linen. The church was renovated in 1865 with funding from two Gavalochori residents in memory of their fathers, both of whom were named Antonios.

Saint Anthony’s Church is named for a Christian monk born in 251 AD in Egypt. He spent much of his life living an ascetic life in the desert, often in solitude, although he did devote several years to the instruction and organization of a group of monks, thus helping to spread the concept of Christian monasticism. Saint Anthony is appealed to by people who are seeking cures from infectious diseases, particularly skin diseases.

After a visit to St Anthony’s church, return to the main road and go the short distance down to the stream bed. Here the stream bed is composed of large rocks and also functions as a road.

Turn right at this point and follow the stream bed/road until you reach a large gray abandoned building on your right. At that point, look for a road on your left. Take this road, which turns into a trail, and you will pass through areas of stream-bed rock and forest.

You will come to the Church of Saint John, which isn’t one of Gavalochori’s 12 churches but is located between Gavalochori and the village of Douliana. This church marks the beheading of the saint and is hundreds of years old, evidenced by the ancient olive trees nearby. On the feast day of this church, August 29, villagers in Gavalochori and Douliana refrain from eating all food. If they eat any foods, they supposedly will get goosebumps or feel a tremor. The goosebumps also may be attributed to the fact that Saint John is known for healing people from the shivers of malaria. Because the end of August often marks the change in climate from summer to fall, the goosebumps also could be due simply to the change in climate. This church is usually open, so feel free to go inside and see this unusual church built inside a cave.

After visiting the church, continue on up the hill on a path and steps made out of jumbled rocks.

There is only one junction that may tempt you on this part of the trail, and that is a path to the left that will take you to Vamos. The path is obviously smaller than the path to Douliana. A sign has been posted there to remove any doubt about which path to take.

At the end of the trail, you will come out in a small square used for parking in the village of Douliana. As you enter the square, turn left and walk a very short distance to the main square of the village. That square has a public seating area, and you can enjoy refreshments at the taverna there.

If you spend any time at all in the Gavalochori area, you are likely to drive past the village of Douliana (Ντουλιανά) many times. But it can also be accessed on foot via a trail from Gavalochori. The trail is 2.5 kilometers (1½ miles) long each way and lets you out near the middle of the village of Douliana. The trail passes through a variety of interesting landscapes and past a church built into rocks that form a cave.

Much of the trail to Douliana has been marked by the Chania Trails Project, but at key points, some of the signage appears to be missing. So while the Chania Trails Project markings are useful along much of the trail, be aware that some key directional decision points along the trail are not marked.

Much of the route is easily traveled using walking shoes; however, there are some segments of the trail that contain loose rocks and very rough rock stairs. You might appreciate light-duty hiking shoes on these segments.

You’ll begin the hike in the main square in Gavalochori, and you want to follow the signs to the museum.

Go past the Folklore Museum and the large church (the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus) on your right. Continue on the road as it crosses a small bridge and then begins to rise.

When the main road veers left toward the old school, keep walking straight ahead on a smaller, less used road. Follow this road as it winds past houses and open fields.

Stay on the road as it travels down a steep hill toward a large stream bed. Before you get to the stream bed, you will see a small road on your right. It leads to Saint Anthony’s Church (the church isn’t visible from the main road). You might want to stop here and have a look—the trail into the church isn’t very long. This is a church you can enter because the key is usually left in the lock on the door.

A very old church dating back at least to the 17th century, the Church of Saint Anthony incorporates a small cave in its construction and was where Christians prayed secretly during Turkish rule. In the late 17th century, a group of nuns settled around the church, and nuns continued to be associated with the church over the next two centuries. One report states that between 1850 and 1865, three nuns lived at the church, keeping goats, hens, and turkeys and spinning wool, cotton, and linen. The church was renovated in 1865 with funding from two Gavalochori residents in memory of their fathers, both of whom were named Antonios.

Saint Anthony’s Church is named for a Christian monk born in 251 AD in Egypt. He spent much of his life living an ascetic life in the desert, often in solitude, although he did devote several years to the instruction and organization of a group of monks, thus helping to spread the concept of Christian monasticism. Saint Anthony is appealed to by people who are seeking cures from infectious diseases, particularly skin diseases.

After a visit to St Anthony’s church, return to the main road and go the short distance down to the stream bed. Here the stream bed is composed of large rocks and also functions as a road.

Turn right at this point and follow the stream bed/road until you reach a large gray abandoned building on your right. At that point, look for a road on your left. Take this road, which turns into a trail, and you will pass through areas of stream-bed rock and forest.

You will come to the Church of Saint John, which isn’t one of Gavalochori’s 12 churches but is located between Gavalochori and the village of Douliana. This church marks the beheading of the saint and is hundreds of years old, evidenced by the ancient olive trees nearby. On the feast day of this church, August 29, villagers in Gavalochori and Douliana refrain from eating all food. If they eat any foods, they supposedly will get goosebumps or feel a tremor. The goosebumps also may be attributed to the fact that Saint John is known for healing people from the shivers of malaria. Because the end of August often marks the change in climate from summer to fall, the goosebumps also could be due simply to the change in climate. This church is usually open, so feel free to go inside and see this unusual church built inside a cave.

After visiting the church, continue on up the hill on a path and steps made out of jumbled rocks.

There is only one junction that may tempt you on this part of the trail, and that is a path to the left that will take you to Vamos. The path is obviously smaller than the path to Douliana. A sign has been posted there to remove any doubt about which path to take.

At the end of the trail, you will come out in a small square used for parking in the village of Douliana. As you enter the square, turn left and walk a very short distance to the main square of the village. That square has a public seating area, and you can enjoy refreshments at the taverna there.

Explore related things to see & do
Cemetery, Church of Saint Anthony, Gavalochori.  Foundation for Gavalochori- Things to See & Do | Gavalochori

Walk to the Church of Saint Anthony

Round-trip distance is 2.6 km
Embedded Arch, Gavalochori.  Foundation for Gavalochori- Gavalochori: A Tour on Foot

Gavalochori: A Tour on Foot

Round-trip distance is 2 km
Church of Saint John, Gavalochori.  Foundation for Gavalochori- Things to See & Do | Gavalochori

Hike to the Church of Saint John in Gavalochori

Round-trip distance is 1.6 km
Old Road to Vamos, Gavalochori.  Foundation for Gavalochori- Things to See & Do | Gavalochori

Walk to Vamos

Round-trip distance is 7 km
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Decline
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookie name Active
  1. Information Collected and Its Uses: When you participate in this site, we may collect the personal information you give us such as your name and email address. We may send you emails about our site and related information about the village of Gavalochori. We may also use your email to survey you about your usage or to collect your opinion.
  2. Obtaining Consent: When you provide us with personal information, you imply that you consent to our collecting it and using it for that specific reason only. If we ask for your personal information for a secondary reason, like marketing, we will either ask you directly for your expressed consent or provide you with an opportunity to say no.
  3. Withdrawing Consent: After you opt in, if you change your mind, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you or for the continued collection, use, or disclosure of your information at any time by contacting us at AnthonyRadich45@gmail.com or mailing us at: 1788 Glencoe Street, Denver, Colorado 80220, USA.
  4. Disclosure: We may disclose your personal information if we are required by law to do so or if you violate our Terms & Conditions. [INSERT LINK to Terms & Conditions].
  5. Location of Data: Your data are stored through the data-storage system of the Foss-Radich Foundation for Gavalochori. Data are stored on a secure server behind a firewall.
  6. Payment Process: If you make a purchase on our site, we use a third-party payment processor. Payments are encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Your purchase transaction data are stored only as long as is necessary to complete your purchase transaction. All direct payment gateways adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit-card information by our site.
  7. Third Party Services: In general, the third-party providers we use will only collect, use, and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us. However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment-transaction processors, have their own privacy policies in respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your purchase-related transactions. For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies so you understand the manner in which your personal information will be handled by these providers. Certain providers may be located in or have facilities in a different jurisdiction than either you or us. If you elect to proceed with a transaction that involves the services of a third-party service provider, your information may become subject to the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which that service provider or its facilities are located. Once you leave our Website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or our Website’s Terms & Conditions.
  8. Links: When you click on links on our Website, they may direct you away from the site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites and encourage you to read their privacy statements.
  9. Security: To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed. If you provide us with your credit-card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored with AES-256 encryption. Although no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional generally accepted industry standards.
  10. Cookies: We collect cookies or similar tracking technologies—information that our Website’s server transfers to your computer. This information can be used to track your session on our Website. Cookies may also be used to customize our Website content for you as an individual. If you are using one of the common internet web browsers, you can set up your browser to either let you know when you receive a cookie or to deny cookie access to your computer.
    • We use cookies to recognize your device and provide you with a personalized experience.
    • We use cookies to attribute visits to our Website to third-party sources and to serve targeted ads from Google, Facebook, Instagram, and other third-party vendors.
    • Our third-party advertisers use cookies to track your prior visits to our Website and elsewhere on the internet in order to serve you targeted ads. For more information about targeted or behavioral advertising, please visit: https://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising.
    • Opting out: You can opt out of targeted ads served via specific third-party vendors by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Opt-Out page.
    • We may also use automated tracking methods on our Website, in communications with you, and in our products and services to measure performance and engagement.
    • Please note that because there is no consistent industry understanding of how to respond to “Do Not Track” signals, we do not alter our data collection and usage practices when we detect such a signal from your browser.
  11. Web-Analysis Tools: We may use web-analysis tools that are built into the Website to measure and collect anonymous session information.
  12. Age of Consent:  You may not use this Website if you are a minor (defined as those who are younger than 18 years of age).
  13. Changes to this Privacy Policy: We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. Please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the Website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated so that you are aware of the nature of the information we collect; how we use it; and the circumstances, if any, under which we will use and/or disclose it. If our site is acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred to the new owners so that we may continue to provide information to you.
  14. Questions and Contact Information: If you would like to access, correct, amend, or delete any personal information we have about you; register a complaint; or simply want more information, contact our Privacy Compliance Officer at AnthonyRadich45@gmail.com or by mail at 1788 Glencoe Street, Denver, Colorado 80220, USA.
Save settings
Cookies settings