Agios Titos church

The Agios Titos Cathedral in Heraklion Town is one of Crete’s most notable landmarks. It’s on August 25th Street, one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares. A nice area with little cafés and restaurants around the church.

The first church of Agios Titos on this site was most likely erected in 961 A.D. by the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus Phokas, who recovered Crete from the Arabs and restored the Byzantine Empire to the island. The emperor built this Orthodox church and dedicated it to Agios Titos, a disciple of Apostle Paul and the first Bishop of Crete, to reinforce the Christian religion in Crete, which had been damaged by the Arabs.

The earliest chapel dedicated to Agios Titos was erected in Gortyn, Crete’s original capital town, before it was devastated by an earthquake in 828 A.D., and the capital was moved to its current site, Heraklion Town, by the Arabs. The skull of Agios Titos, as well as a miracle-working image of Virgin Mary and other relics from Gortyn, were moved to this new church.

The church of Agios Titos was converted into a mosque known as Vezir mosque during the Turkish rule of Crete. The temple was completely damaged in the 1856 earthquake that struck Crete, and architect Athanasios Mousis reconstructed it as an Ottoman mosque. When the last Ottomans left the island of Crete, which had been merged into the Greek State since 1909, the minaret was dismantled. After being renovated in 1925, the cathedral now serves as an Orthodox church.