The Agios Mironas settlement is exquisite for its architecture and its cultural activities. Administratively, the village is under the former Malevizi district, in the Heraclion municipality. The district is consisted also of Ksirolia (with very few residents).

Agios Mironas is 20 kilometers from Heraclion and built on the top of a col, 140 meters above the sea level. The view from there is panoramic.

720 people live in the settlement. Their main occupations are livestock and agriculture. The area is famous for the raisin and wine produced.

The urban planning of the village is exceptional. The old element blends well with the new one and that makes the settlement an architectural model.

The ancient city of Rafkou was in the place where the settlement is today and also the homeland of Agios Mironas (i.e. Saint Mironas).

HISTORY

The area flourished in the Minoan Era by the name “Rafkos”. There weren’t any excavations in the area but random findings are in the Archaeological Museum of Heraclion.

The first reference of the village was in a contract in honor of Saint Mironas, in 1281. It was also mentioned in the Kastrofilakas’s census as “Samiro”, in 1583.

During the Ottoman Occupation Agios Mironas was a center of Resistance against Ottomans.

In 1856, the village was destroyed completely by an earthquake.

PLACE NAME

The name of the settlement came from Saint Mironas that was born and lived in the village.

CHURCHES

The cathedral of the village is the Agios Mironas church. The grave of the saint is in the church and his relics in a luxurious reliquary. His skete is beneath and in the west of the church and it, later, became a chapel.

FESTIVITIES

A feast takes place on the 8^th of August, on the day of the celebration of Saint Mironas.