Explore Heraklion

Saint Titus Cathedral is a Greek Orthodox church in Heraklion dedicated to the Apostle Titus, the first bishop of Crete. The present building, designed by Athanasios Moussis, was put up in 1869 as an Ottoman mosque on the site of the city's older cathedral of Titus. It became a church in 1925 and has been a cathedral since 2013; its square front faces a palm-lined square.

The Venetian Loggia on 25 Avgoustou Street in Heraklion was built around 1628 under the provveditore Francesco Morosini as the meeting place of the city's Venetian nobles. The two-storey Palladian building has Doric columns on the ground floor and Ionic columns above. It now houses Heraklion City Hall; visitors see its arcaded front from the street.

Saint Mark's Basilica is a Gothic three-aisled church on Lions Square in Heraklion, built in 1239 for the Venetian duke and officials of Crete. After the Ottoman conquest in 1669 it became the Defterdar Ahmet Pasha Mosque and served as one until 1915. Restored after 1956, it now houses the Municipal Art Gallery of Heraklion, and its arcaded portico faces the square.

Lions Square, officially Eleftheriou Venizelou Square, is a pedestrian square in the centre of Heraklion that dates from the Venetian period. It takes its common name from the Morosini Fountain, opened in 1628 by Francesco Morosini, where four stone lions support the main basin. Saint Mark's Basilica and the Venetian Loggia stand beside it.

The Historical Museum of Crete, founded in 1953 by the Society of Cretan Historical Studies, occupies the Kalokairinos family house in Heraklion and a newer wing. Its collections follow Cretan history from early Christian times to the Second World War, with icons, frescoes and a model of Venetian Candia. It holds two paintings by El Greco and the study of Nikos Kazantzakis.

Agios Minas Cathedral is the Greek Orthodox cathedral of Heraklion and the seat of the Archbishop of Crete, dedicated to Saint Menas, the city's patron saint. Designed by Athanasios Moussis, it was begun in 1862 and finished in 1895. The cross-shaped church has a central dome and two bell towers; the small 18th-century church of Agios Minas stands beside it.

The Koules is a Venetian fortress at the entrance to the old harbour of Heraklion, given its present form between 1523 and 1540. Reliefs of the Lion of St Mark mark its outer walls. Inside, 26 vaulted rooms on the ground floor once held stores and quarters, and the upper level with its gun positions looks out over the harbour.

The Venetian walls enclose the old town of Heraklion in a roughly triangular ring. The Republic of Venice began them in 1462 to designs by Michele Sanmicheli and others; the city held out behind them for 21 years before falling to the Ottomans in 1669. Seven bastions and several gates survive, and the writer Nikos Kazantzakis is buried on the Martinengo Bastion.

Knossos is an archaeological site at Knossos, 5 km south of Heraklion, settled from the Neolithic onwards and the main centre of Minoan Crete. Its palace, first built around 1900 BC around a central court, was excavated and partly reconstructed by Arthur Evans from 1900. Visitors see the throne room, the north entrance with its red columns and the storerooms.

Watercity is a water park at Anopolis, near Gouves between Heraklion and Hersonissos on Crete. Its grounds of about 87,000 square metres hold pools, children's water games and 44 slides, the steepest of them reserved for visitors over 1.40 m. The park opens in summer only, from early May to October.