Near Karydi of Mirabello, 15 km west of Elounda.

the complex was founded at the end of the 16th century by the monk Makarios Katsaras and the monks Manasis and Xenophontas. Its foundation is also commemorated on the tombstone of Manasis in the monastery’s precinct, who was buried in August 1617. The monastery flourished in the 17th century, but was abandoned in 1900. It was recently restored, when restoration work began on its buildings.

It is said that due to the prosperity of the monastery in its heyday, anyone who went there ate sumptuously and “cardamomed-felt significantly better and gained a lot of energy”, hence the name Kardamoutsa.

The monastery follows the fortress architecture. The middle of the courtyard is dominated by the catholic church and around it the outbuildings are developed in a Π-shape. The buildings date in successive phases from the 15th to the 18th century and include cells, cisterns, storerooms, a bank, a stable, a seminary, a mill, a cheese dairy, and a guest house.

According to the religious tradition, anyone who goes to cut a branch from the huge kermes tree at the entrance of the Monastery, has his hand cut off. Anyone who is truly sinless can smell its scent when he approaches it.