The church of Agios Georgios (St. George GR: Αγιος Γεώργιος) Phalandras stands a little to the south from the Palace of Phaistos on the road to Agios Ioannis village. The church was the monastery church of the Orthodox male monastery of the same name, dated to the early Venetian period (16th century), which operated normally until its dissolution in 1821. The ruins of the fortified building complex around the church were still visible until the first decades of the 20th century. The place-name Phalandra or Phlandra is thought to be a corruption of the word "Filanda" (textile factory), referring to the fact that the monks farmed silk-worms.
This is probably the site known as Melikas, where Saint John the Stranger founded the monastery of Agios Georgios Douvrikas in the second half of the 10th century. The large church with its vaulted roof, few plain openings and interesting stone Renaissance icon screen was originally planned as a two-aisled structure. The shorter north aisle dedicated to the Virgin was never completed, while the bell-tower at its west end was converted into a two-storey tower. This was why the two unequal connecting archways between the two aisles were walled up almost immediately. Tombs of eminent figures of the Venetian period have been discovered both within the monument and outside it.