Limnoupolis water park at Varypetro

Varypetro and the Limnoupolis water park

About seven kilometres south of Perivolia, at the foot of the White Mountains, lies the village of Varypetro (Βαρύπετρο). Here a farming landscape of olive groves, citrus orchards and green hillsides borders on Aqua Creta Limnoupolis, a large water park in the hinterland of Chania and the only one in the western part of the island. Anyone driving up from the coast exchanges the bustle of the beaches for a quiet hill country in which the rush of the water slides sounds a little unexpected; the bare grey crests of the range close the view to the south, and in early summer snow still lies on them while the pools below are full.

The park covers some 65,000 square metres of well-planted ground; its central pool measures 1,500 square metres. In the deep section the water goes down to 3.80 metres, and the different levels and a small island in the middle give the impression of a broad, open expanse of water rather than a swimming pool. Around it lie lawns, sun loungers and parasols, a bar at the water’s edge and shady resting places under the trees; the lawns and planting were laid out from the start so that the park would merge with the orchards around it.

Water attractions and the family area

Limnoupolis has eleven water slides of various designs: two free-fall chutes, the enclosed “Black Hole”, a triple spiral slide known as the Triple Twist, the “Crazy River”, a multi-lane rainbow slide and the big high-speed runs. A separate children’s pool offers shallow paddling areas, small waterfalls, climbing frames, brightly coloured mini-slides and a tipping wooden barrel that empties a cascade over everyone beneath it. The children’s area is fenced and shallow enough for the smallest, and lifeguards are posted at each slide.

For quieter recreation there is the “lazy river”, about 206 metres long: the current carries bathers at a leisurely pace in a circuit through the gardens. The artificial island has play features and is reached by a rope bridge. The park also has a restaurant, a snack bar, a pirate bar, a shop and a first-aid post; changing rooms, a car park and rest areas are provided, and the grounds are also hired out for children’s parties and wedding receptions.

Varypetro: a village near Chania

Varypetro lies about eight or nine kilometres south-west of Chania and belongs to the municipal unit of Therisso within the municipality of Chania. At the census of 2011 the settlement itself had 548 permanent residents; the local community also includes Lygides, Marmaras, Myloniana and Potistiria, small hamlets among the olive groves on the lower slopes.

The name Varypetro – literally “heavy stone” – appears in sources of the 17th century. East of the village lies the archaeological zone of Kastellos, with traces of settlement from Minoan to Byzantine times, including buildings of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. On the summit, about 275 metres high, which commands the fertile plain of Chania and the approach to the coast, stood a Byzantine fortified settlement. It is mentioned as early as the reign of the Emperor Herakleios in the 7th century, lost importance under the Arabs, and was refortified in the 10th century, after Nikephoros Phokas had recovered the island for Byzantium in 961, as one of a chain of strongholds intended to secure the reconquered province. The main wall was 2.60 metres thick and more than eight metres high, strengthened with triangular towers; inside were cisterns, wells, dwellings and the ruin of a church of Agia Triada. The Venetians took no interest in castles of the interior, preferring to hold the coast, and the place fell into decay; today only a stretch of the wall and the cistern are easily made out among the scrub. In 1968 the archaeologist Giannis Tzedakis examined the site; it has scarcely been investigated systematically since.

Springs rise in the neighbourhood and are used for the water supply of Chania and for irrigating the fields, and the road by way of Vamvakopoulo and Agia connects the village with the town; Agia, with its reservoir and its early Byzantine basilica, is on the way.

The district is also bound up with the military history of Crete. In 1825 the battle of Varypetro was fought not far away: a small band of Cretan insurgents was defeated by a greatly superior force of the Sultan – Egyptian troops in Ottoman service under Mustafa Pasha. The monastery of Agia Kyriaki in the valley below the Kastellos served the rebels as a refuge throughout the Ottoman period, and on 14 May 1866 delegates from all over the island met there to draft the memorandum to the Sultan and the European powers that opened the great revolt of that year. Later the inhabitants took part in the struggle for the liberation of the island and in the resistance to the German occupation.

What the place name tells

Limnoupolis – from the Greek Λιμνούπολη, “lake city” or “city of the lake” – is the name of the water park, not of a natural lake. Varypetro is the name of the settlement itself. The distinction matters: the park lies in the rural lands of Varypetro, but its pools and its artificial river are no part of the natural waters of Crete. The island’s only true freshwater lake is found further east, at Kournas beyond Georgioupoli.

Limnoupolis is open only in season, usually in the warm months from late spring to early autumn. Before setting out it is worth checking opening times, safety rules and the availability of individual attractions on the park’s official site; hotels in Chania, Platanias and Rethymno sell excursions with transfer, and the park also runs its own buses from the coast. The outing combines well with a visit to the nearby monastery of Agia Kyriaki, which lies below the Kastellos in a wooded little valley with a stream, some 12 kilometres south of Chania. Founded in the 17th century and a dependency of the Chrysopigi convent from 1637, it was a ruin by 1992 and was restored by the nuns of Chrysopigi between 1993 and 1996; its church is dedicated to the Transfiguration, kept on 6 August, with a second feast of Agia Kyriaki on 7 July, and a restored 16th-century olive press now serves as the refectory.