Aradena and Aradena Bridge
Aradena: With the snow-white peaks of the Lefka Ori mountains gleaming in the distance, the picturesque village of Aradena adorns the deep gorge. Just as brightly, the little white 14th-century church of archangel Saint Michael illuminates the steep slope. Built with ancient stones on the foundation walls of a Paleo-Christian Basilica, it was designed in the shape of a Byzantine cross. The interior is decorated with Byzantine frescoes and bears witness to the past, including the history of the city-state of Aradin, an ally of Pergamon in Asia Minor, which was once situated here.
Aradena Bridge: The Aradena Gorge is spanned by a Bailey type truss bridge made of steel. Its supporting width is 84 meters, the length of the actual steel construction is 65 meters, and its height above the deep gorge is 138 meters.
A Bailey bridge can be built from prefabricated standard truss elements without the aid of heavy equipment. It can be pushed over the obstacle to be bridged via roller bearings. You always connect so many bridge elements that the bridge can be pushed over the obstacle in balance or with a sufficient counterweight on the production side. To avoid a lowering of the bridgehead due to the bolt connections of the individual segments, an angular, upward-pointing “launching nose” in lightweight construction is applied at the foremost section, so that the bridgehead can safely be placed on the opposite bridge foundation. Instead of bolts, they used screw connections at the joints of the Aradena Bridge’s elements on the upper and lower chord, thus achieving a stronger connection of the individual segments and low deflection.
The 65-meter assembly line required to pre-assemble the necessary bridge length is still clearly visible today: It’s that straight section of road on the access side in the alignment of the gorge crossing. The unloading and storage area for the bridge elements used to be to the right of the assembly line.
Pavlos Vardinogiannis (1926-1984), a member of the Vardinogiannis family from the neighboring village of Agios Ioannis, initiated the bridge construction. His four brothers founded the Motor Oil Company in the shipping and oil business, one of the most financially successful dynasties in Greece. Pavlos Vardinogiannis studied law in Athens, was elected to Parliament in 1956 and became a minister in the government of G. Papandreou in 1964. After the coup and during the dictatorship he lived in exile. He returned to Greece in 1974 and was re-elected to Parliament in 1977.
Thanks to his initiative, the first gravel road link between Agios Ioannis, Chora Sfakion and the north of Crete was established, and with the financial support of his brothers, the bridge over the Aradena Gorge was built – in an area where goods were still transported on centuries-old mule tracks (Kalderimi) until the 1960s.
A Hike In The Aradena Gorge
Welcome, dear audience, listen to the wind blowing through the gorge and rustling in the pines and oaks! Yes, the planking of the bridge starts its drum roll, this is the opening tune. Step into this spectacular and grandiose gorge. Tremble at the breakneck climbing sections, shudder at the sight of mummies and skeletons, marvel at the wonders of nature in the cabinet of curiosities – only here, in the Aradena Gorge!
The Aradena Gorge may be one of the lesser known gorges of Crete, but is all the more spectacular. So, take off your cycling shoes and slip into a pair of light trainers for a short and easy hike in the Aradena Gorge. When you stop for a break at the Aradena kiosk, it is advisable to ask the shop owner to store your bike inside his rooms. Under no circumstances should your bike be left unattended or without being well and safely locked.
The gorges, which are mainly cut into the limestone, were formed by the strong uplift of the mountains opposite the coastline, along a fault running from Chora Sfakion to Paleochora to the west. The gorges themselves were formed by drainage and karstic weathering along existing faults as well as by the fracture tectonics associated with this uplift of more than 500 meters, which has been going on since the late Miocene.
A Hike in the Gorge: Walk past the car park directly behind the kiosk and the ruins of the old oil mill on the western side of the gorge, then towards the north through the largely deserted village. When you approach the church and cemetery, turn left until you reach the gravel road running northeast. Follow it to the end of the village, where the paved mule track leads down into the gorge in narrow bends.
It’s shady and cool at the bottom of the valley. The soaring rock walls are up to 200 meters tall, and above the crypt, the bridge spans the gaping gorge at a dizzying height. Every rattle of a car crossing the bridge is amplified and echoes down into the mysterious silence of the underworld.
The walls of the gorge are cut into the sporadically overgrown limestone (Plattenkalk). At the bottom of the valley, where oleanders, pines and oaks adorn the slopes and the scree on the rocky ground, you can find thyme, sage, savory, chaste tree berry, lavender, oregano and capers, but also endemics such as ebenus cretica, linum arboreum with its yellow flowers or delicate ricotia cretica.
After half an hour of hiking, the first spectacular descent is reached via two huge limestone blocks that have fallen into the gorge. The descent of about 12 meters is made via two iron ladders (or, alternatively, by a walkable detour). In the past you had to hurdle this place with ropes and along an iron chain.
Proceeding coastwards, you’ll climb, slide and jump over some more large limestone blocks. Markings help you find your way, but are missing in some places, so you may have to climb back a bit from one or the other dead end.
So … Bearded vultures circle already over the gorge in search of animal carcasses or a lonely hiker on a steep ridge in the middle of nowhere.
For those who know the way, the canyon hiking tour up to Marmara Bay takes approximately two to two and a half hours. The hiking tour through the canyon is definitely not suitable for children or people with a physical disability. I recommend that cyclists who wish to master the complete biking tour turn back shortly after the ladder passage.
As it can get extremely hot in the lower part of the gorge, sufficient water supplies are essential. You’ll be rewarded by the colorful marble grottos along the coast of Marmara Bay, into which you can easily swim from the beach.
The Tour To Agios Ioannis | 5 km | 200 vertical meters
To Agios Ioannis: The weather has changed, fog rises up, and after crossing the Aradena Gorge you enter a completely different, alpine world. For five kilometers, the path from Aradena winds itself through a limestone scree dotted with juniper, rockrose, spurge (euphorbia acanthothamnos), herbs and grasses. There are still a few olive and cypress trees on the plain, and on the slopes a pine forest accompanies the road that ascends 200 meters in altitude while leading up to Agios Ioannis at 780 meters above sea level.
The karst valleys are adorned with green pastures featuring olives, juniper, wild flowers, herbs and grass. Here and there, pyrus spinosa, a very branchy wild pear tree shows off its glowing white blossoms as if to light the way and guide you through the fog.
In the north, the barren Mount Kefala and Mount Koutska, still covered with snowfields, disappear in the clouds, and the warmth rising up from the road makes for a peculiar contrast to the cool wafts of mist from which sheep appear and disappear again like aliens. And just as suddenly the first scattered houses of the mountain pasture of Agios Ioannis emerge from the fog.
A Days Adventure: The 12-kilometer ascent to Anopolis, the three kilometers to Aradena, a three-hour detour into the Aradena Gorge, the five kilometers to Agios Ioannis, and the return journey to Chora Sfakion add up to an enjoyable and adventurous day trip of about seven hours, including breaks. In total there are 42km and 1,151 vertical meters to be mastered. Go for the adventure!