Overview

The village of Sougia is built on the ruins of the ancient city of Snia which knew great prosperity mainly in the Roman and first Byzantine period. The remains of vaulted tombs, of a water reservoir from the Roman time and of an early Christian basilica from the 4th century AD with marvelous mosaics give evidence of the long history.

Very near and within a radius of 3 km there are Byzantine churches from the 11th and 12th century with wellmaintained wall paintings as for example Agia Irini, Agios Nikolaos etc. Worth seeing is also the ancient city of Liso or the gorge of Agia Irini, which is of comparable beauty to that of Samaria. With the regular service boats you can visit Sfakia, Palaiochora or Gavdos, the southernmost island of Greece and of Europe.

The Byzantine church of Agia Irini is situated above Sougia. The church is not visible from the town but can be reached after 4km along the dirt track (rough on a car) going west at the entrance to Sougia. The hiker's reward is a spectacular view of the bay from a hill high above Sougia. Agia Irini is a small but beautiful church of cruciform architecture with a high dome at the centre.