Kroustas Forest and Park

The forest or park of Kroustas is named after the neighboring settlement of Kroustas, Meramvello, Lasithi, which belongs to the Municipality of Agios Nikolaos and is located 16 kilometers south of the city of Agios Nikolaos. Above Kroustas and extending to the south-southwest, this wonderful and beautiful forest extends along with the neighboring villages that surround it: Males, Kalamafka, Anatoli, Kritsa, Prina, Kalo Chorio. It is, at the moment, the largest forest in Crete, both in area and in biodiversity.

It consists mainly of pine trees, oaks, maples, but it also has some areas as clearings, so to speak, in which seasonal vegetables are cultivated as well as vineyards, such as of course mainly pear trees, apple trees, etc.

One of the most important forests of Eastern Crete, the rare forest of Kroustas, spreads over the wider area of ​​the south-eastern Lasithi mountains. Since 2012, the Historical Park of Kroustas Forest has been established in the area by volunteers of the local Cultural Association, with the aim of protecting the forest and the archaeological finds. The area was systematically settled and intensively used by humans 4,000 years ago. In the early Minoan Palatial period (1900-1650 BC), several agricultural facilities (penns, enclosures) were constructed with boulders along with farmhouses.

The impressive findings of the Minoan period were documented by Sabine Beckmann in the period 2003-2012. Then, the archaeologist from Germany (Sabine Beckmann), conducted excavations and research in the forest and identified, alone with her own funds, over three hundred Minoan sites in the forest. We are dealing with a wonderful and impressive forest that has a historical, archaeological and ecological background.