Frangokastello

Frangokastello (Greek: Φραγκοκάστελλο) is the location of a castle and scattered settlement on the south coast of Crete, Greece, about 12 km (7.5 miles) east of Chora Sfakion and within the prefecture of Chania.

Frangokastello has an extensive, sheltered and gently shelving sandy beach, which has provided the basis for a low key tourist industry in recent years.

Tourist accommodation is scattered over the flat plain around the castle, but the area's relative remoteness has discouraged major development.

The locals, however, who never saw it in a positive light, contemptuously dubbed it Frangokastello, meaning the Castle of the Franks (i.e. Catholic foreigners), Castelfranco or Franco Castello.

According to tradition, around the anniversary of the battle each May, shadows of the armed Cretan and Epirote soldiers who lost their lives there seem to march towards the fortress around dawn.

Inside the castle