The Metropolitan Church of Agios Minas is located in the center of the city of Heraklion and it is the largest church of Crete and the Seat of the Archbishop of Crete. It is majestic and especially loved by the Heraklion citizens.
It is dedicated to Saint Minas, who lived in Egypt in the 3rd century AD. and was martyred during the time of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. In 1826, and while Crete was still a province of the Ottoman Empire, on the night of Resurrection, and while the Christians of the city of Heraklion had gathered in the church of Mikros Agios Minas, (small Saint Minas’s church) the Turks attacked them. A mounted soldier calmed the Turks down and prevented the massacre. The Christians believed that the horseman was Saint Minas and, since then, he has been the patron saint of the city and, every year, he is celebrated on November 11th, a public holiday for the city.
The Church is impressive and stands out on the city skyline with its 43m. length, 30 m. width and 33m. height. Its construction began in 1862 and was completed in 1895. The architect Athanasios Mousis had also designed Agios Titos (another beautiful church in the city center) and the barracks in Eleftherias Square, the buildings now housing the Prefecture of Heraklion and the Courts. The colossal expense of building the Church was financed by the laymen and the monasteries of Crete alike. The opening ceremony of the Church, on April 16, 1895, was magnificent and has been the most brilliant event in the history of Crete. Thousands of pilgrims gathered from all over Crete, the city was illuminated, the shops were decorated and the celebrations lasted for three days.
The architecture of the Church combines two Byzantine styles, the inscribed cross with a dome (cross shaped with nave and a dome) and the three-aisled basilica with Π-shaped inside balconies. It is externally decorated with classical, renaissance, Islamic and neoclassical elements. Internally, the marble pulpit was installed in 1920, the older wooden chancel was replaced with a marble one in 1930, and the frescoes were completed in the 1960s.
Next to the Church of Saint Minas are the first church dedicated to Saint Minas, the small Agios Minas, and the church of Saint Ekaterini. The small Agios Minas was built in 1735 at the expense of the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai. It is a two-aisled church, the northern aisle is dedicated to Virgin Mary Pantanassa and the southern aisle to Saint Minas. Its wood-carved chancel and the icons made by great 18th-century hagiographers are excellent examples of ecclesiastical art. The church of Saint Aikaterini was founded in the second Byzantine period and was an important cultural center from the 15th to the 17th century. Today, it is a small museum for Byzantine art and houses collections of ecclesiastical utensils and books, vestments and important icons of the Cretan school of iconography.
The church of Saint Minas is open every day, and many people from all over the world visit it. The square around the church is very cozy and popular with the townspeople who come here to relax in the surrounding small cafes and for their children to play and feed the pigeons.
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