Byzantine and post-Byzantine monuments

Countless Byzantine monuments, more than 5,000 Byzantine churches and innumerable Byzantine chapels, often with remarkable frescoes, can be found on every mountain and in every corner of Crete.

Dating back to the Early and Middle Byzantine period and the period of the Venetian domination (13th-17th century), many of them have been altered over the centuries, while others have been demolished and rebuilt.

It is worth seeking out and praying at the Virgin Mary of Keras in Lassithi, with its 14th century frescoes, and at the mountain church of Agios Nikolaos in Kyriakoselia, Chania, two of the most important ecclesiastical monuments in Crete, built in the lap of a unique natural landscape.

But don’t miss in the city centres, the metropolitan churches, many of which were built during the Ottoman domination-occupation, such as the Cathedral of Trimartyri, in the Old Town of Chania, or Agios Titos-Saint Titus in Heraklion, originally built as a mosque.