Patrick Comerford
During a day in Iraklion, the main city in Crete, last month, I visited and revisited a number of cathedrals and churches in the heart of the city, including Saint Minas Cathedral, the older, much smaller Church of Saint Minas that sits in its shadow; Saint Catharine of Sinai, which stands in the same square and is now the impressive Museum of Christian Art; the Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites, which also has connections with Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai; Saint Peter’s Church, a former Dominican foundation now reopened as Saint Peter and Saint Paul; and two neighbouring churches in the busy, throbbing heart of the city, Saint Titus and Saint Mark.
Saint Mark and Saint Titus sit beside each other, and both have had cathedral status at different times. Saint Titus dates back to Byzantine times, and is probably the church in Iraklion that most tourists visit because of its location, because it is open daily as a church, and because it holds the most celebrated relic in Crete.
Saint Mark’s, on the other hand, no longer functions as a church. But, as its name suggests, it dates back, to Venetian times.
The Basilica of Saint Mark (Βασιλική του Αγίου Μάρκου), or Aghios Markos (Άγιος Μάρκος), is in the centre of Iraklion, facing onto Eleftheriou Venizelou Square, popularly known as Lions Square (Πλατεία Λεόντων) because of the lions that decorate the Morisini Fountain.
Saint Mark’s is one of the few Roman Catholic churches still standing in Crete. It was built in the centre of Candia (today’s Iraklion) in 1239, after the Venetian conquest of Crete following the Fourth Crusade, and it primarily served the island’s Venetian governors and rulers.
The first church was built in Gothic style at the palace of the Duke of Candia, and it was used by the duke and senior Venetians in the city. The foundation stone was laid by the Latin bishop of Ierapetra. However, the church belonged not to the Latin bishop but to the duke himself, who appointed a prefect or chaplain in charge of the church. Ducal decrees were pronounced at the entrance to the basilica, and members of the duke’s family were buried in the churchyard.
The first church was severely damaged in an earthquake in 1303, but it was later restored. A stronger earthquake hit the island in 1508 and severely damaged Saint Mark’s. The duke ordered wooden beams from Sfakia when the church was being rebuilt in 1514. The north wall was about to collapse by 1552, and was supported with four struts, two of which survive to this day.
The rebuilding was completed in 1557, but Saint Mark’s was damaged again by earthquakes in 1564 and 1595. The church was renovated in 1599 by the builder Micheles Raptopoulos and the carpenter Giannis Kladas, but the north wall was in danger of collapsing once more in 1625.
During the Cretan War (1645-1669), the bell tower was used as an watchtower, with its bells being rung when a bombardment began. After Candia fell to the Ottomans in 1668, the Venetians took away the bells and other relics, and Saint Mark’s was surrendered to Ahmet Pasha, who was the Ottoman defterdar or minister of finance from 1661 to 1675.
Ahmet Pasha converted Saint Mark’s into a mosque known as the Defterdar Ahmet Pasha Mosque. He demolished the bell tower and replaced it with a minaret on the south corner, and its remains can be seen to this day. They also destroyed the murals and frescoes in the church and discarded relics and burials to build a mihrab and a minbar. The mosque had three yards to the north, the south and the east, a well and a cistern. The complex included three shops, a cellar and a two-storey building.
Ahmet Pasha acquired other buildings in Iraklion, including the ducal palace, to provide rental income to maintain the mosque. The duke’s palace has long since been razed, but the 17th century Loggia, built in 1628 by Francisco Morosini, remains one of the most impressive buildings in the city.
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Saint Mark’s is a three-aisled basilica with an elevated central nave and a portico at the west entrance. The interior dimensions are 32 x 15.6 metres. The elongated proportions of the aisles emphasise the elongated dimensions of the church.
The ornate doorway of the Venetian Palazzo d’Ittar, now the Museum of Ancient Technology, was moved to the church and has been integrated into the inner side of the north entrance. A three-light window inserted in the south wall inside comes from an unknown building.
Two rows of columns each have five columns of green granite with six Gothic arches. The fluted capitals dated from the 14th century, while some of the arches from the Greek and Roman archaeological sites at Iraklion and Knossos.
The portico at the west façade is 6.15 metres long and the colonnade has columns and five arches. This loggia was used in the past by grain merchants. The flat roof was removed during the Ottoman period and replaced by a pitched roof was added. Only three of the original columns survive, with their capitals dating from around the 14th century.
The base of the old bell tower still stands at on the south-west corner of the basilica. It is made of square hewn stones, 4.2 metres tall, and with the remnants of the demolished minaret at the top.
Saint Mark’s remained a mosque for almost 2½ centuries, until it was closed by the Greek state in 1915. After the Asia Minor catastrophe and the forced exchanges of people between Greece and Turkey, the Muslim community left Crete in 1924. The minaret was finally torn down in 1924.
The former mosque came into the hands of the National Bank of Greece and then the Municipality of Iraklion, and for a time it was used as a cinema. At one time in the early 1950s, the city council suggested demolishing the church and replacing it with a municipal theatre or a post office. This plan was abandoned for financial reasons, and a decision was made in 1954 to restore the church.
The Society of Cretan History Studies started to restore the basilica in 1956. During the restoration, the middle aisle was elevated to return to its original place, with the addition of 12 windows on each side, and five windows on the north wall. The portico was rebuilt, the church floor was covered with new slabs, the inner colonnade was repaired and the building was reinforced with concrete.
Since the restoration was completed in 1960, the church has been used as a municipal art gallery, the Museum of Visual Arts, with exhibits of works of art. These have included the Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco) exhibition (1990), the Cretan School exhibition (1998) and the Fayum mummy portraits exhibition (1998). Several leading Greek artists have exhibited in the gallery.
Further down 25 August street, heading towards the harbour, the side streets hide some more interesting churches that seldom attract the attention of tourists. Lordou Vironos street, off 25 August street, is named after the Philhellene poet Lord Byron and leads into Marineli Street and Platia Aghiou Dimitriou with a small park and the picturesque Church of Saint Dimitrios.
Aghios Dimitrios looks like a new church and it was fully restored in 1964. However, it datesback centuries, and was named as San Demetrio and as San Dimitrio, Chiesa Greca in Venetian documents. It is first referred to in May 1554, and may have been named Saint Dimitios (Άγιος Δημήτριος), after the patron saint of carpenters, when carpenters were engaged in the construction of the city’s Venetians walls.
When Iraklion fell to the Ottomans, the icons and other sacred treasures in the church were moved to churches in Corfu and Zakynthos.
The Ottomans did not rebuild on the site because of its small size, and the three-aisle church was deserted. The site became known for a small fresh-water fountain. In the early 1900s, local people uncovered a fresco and parts of the early church.
The remaining part of the church collapsed completely during the German bombing of Iraklion in 1941. The reconstruction of Aghios Dimitrios began in the 1950s and was completed in 1964, and the church is a now a preserved building. The only surviving part of the early church is a part of frescoes inside the sanctuary. The two side aisles are devoted to Saint Eleftherios and Saint Anargyroi.
The parish of Aghios Dimitrios at one time acquired Saint Peter’s, the former Dominican church and monastery near the harbour, renamed it Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and planned to use it as a church. Instead, it has been transformed into a museum and exhibition area, although contains to be used for liturgical purposes on special days.
Saint Dimitrios of Thessaloniki (Άγιος Δημήτριος, feast day 26 October), is one of the most popular saints and martyrs in the Greek Orthodox Church. The Church of Aghios Dimitrios is most famous church in Thessaloniki and was first built as a small oratory shortly after the year 313 on the site of the saint’s martyrdom 10 years earlier.
The present five-aisled basilica in Thessaloniki is the largest church in Greece. Because of the saints popularity and extensive patronage, there are churches named Saint Dimitrios throughout Greece from all periods of Greek history.
No-one arriving into Iraklion by public transport can fail to notice, for example, the large Church of Aghios Dimitrios on the corner of Ikarou and street Steliou Kazantzidi street in the Karambas area near the port.
The tiny Church of Aghios Andreas on Nikolaos Plastiras street is surrounded on three sides and overwhelmed by the modern Cultural and Conference Centre of Iraklion (Πολιτιστικό και Συνεδριακό Κέντρο Ηρακλείου, ΠΣΚΗ). The centre for the performing arts opened in 2019 after long debates and planning that had gone on for over four decades.
The complex is on a 5,670 sq metre site, with a total floor area of 28,487 sq metres. The auditorium seats 750 people and there are several smaller auditoriums, stages and performance areas. The Heraklion Cultural Centre was first proposed in 1975. Today, with its modern architectural design and facilities, it is an important centre of artistic and cultural excellence in Crete and for Greece.
The Church of Saint Andreas squats beneath the centre on three sides, on the other side it is overlooked by the city’s Venetian walls and the Martinengo Bastion and the grave of Crete’s most celebrated writer Nikos Kazantzakis beyond is Ergotelis soccer stadium, a reminder of the culture, continuity, identity and diversity that coalesced to make modern Crete.
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