A Mosque In Heraklion City

When the Venetians occupied Crete in 1210, the Latin archbishop of Crete occupied the church of Ag. Titus in Heraklion and settled there. Opposite the sanctuary of the church, where the Palace of the Union of Agricultural Unions is today, was the palace of the Archdiocese, whose sculpted entrance door was preserved until the last. After the surrender of Hadaka to the Turks in 1669, all the relics were transported to Italy and the temple was converted by the conqueror of Hadaka Kiproulou into a mosque, known at that time as Vizier Mosque.

The old building was destroyed by the earthquake of 1856 and was rebuilt on the old foundations with a design by the practical engineer Athan. Muse, the architect of the church of Megalo Ag. Month. The building was finished in 1872. "This graceful architectural work, which was unparalleled in Crete", as Xanthoudidis says, with its many windows, curved and arched outlines, today presents an Arabic appearance and as such is a monument. After the exchange of populations with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the Church of Crete occupied the mosque and rebuilt and adapted it to Christian worship while in 1925 it was re-established, after 716 years, by the Apostle of Crete Tito in the Orthodox Church. In the place where today rises a belfry, was a very high minaret with two sheriffs that was demolished.

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