The ancient settlement of Eleftherna is in the northwest of Psiloritis at an altitude of 380m, 30km away from Rethymno. Two hills, Pyrgi and Nisi, were the core of the development of a thriving city in Hellenistic times.
The University of Crete carried out systematic excavations in 1985, revealing important archaeological finds dating from the geometric to the early Byzantine times.
In Pyrgi, in the centre of the settlement, there are remains of Hellenistic retaining walls, ruins of Roman buildings like houses, baths, a road and a cemetery, as well as an early Christian church. In Nisi are the ruins of a Hellenistic city neighbourhood, that was abandoned in the Roman period.