The ruins of the ancient city of Rizinia are on the Patella hill, 2 kilometers from Prinias.

The city flourished as an independent community from the Sub-Minoan to the Archaic era and was subject to Gortina from the 5^th to the 2^nd century B.C. .

Two archaic temples of the 7^th century B.C. were excavated on the Patella hill. The older, dedicated to goddess Rea, is the most important. It can be thought as a variation of the temple in antis, but many elements remind the small sanctuaries of the 3^rd Post-Minoan era. There was only one column between the antae of the pronaos and two wooden columns in the middle of the cella. There were an embossed frieze with horsemen in the front of the temple, a small frieze of animals in the lintel and two seated god statues. The marbles were the first samples of the so-called plastics of Daedalus. Potsherds with inscriptions on them were found and they prove the worship of Athena in the city in the 2^nd century B.C.

The wide area of Prinias is thought to have been a shelter for Eteocretans. A temple has been found in the east of the Patella hill and some findings from there are referred to the worship of the snake, but also of a goddess with raised arms.

There was a cemetery and a castle in the west of the hill from the 4^th or 5^th century B.C..