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.

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.

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 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.