Church of Saint Titus (Agios Titos), Heraklion

Beautifully decorated church house.

Agios Titos (Greek Άγιος Τίτος) is an Orthodox church building in the center of the old town of Heraklion (Heraklion). It belongs to the Archdiocese of Crete and houses the skull relic of St. Tito's.
In 55 AD, the Apostle Paul may have been in Gortyn, the capital of Crete, with his companion Titos. Here Paul consecrated Titos as the first bishop of Crete and commissioned him to proselytize Crete. According to tradition, Tito had an episcopal church built. He is said to be buried there.
After the division of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, Crete came under Byzantine rule. The successful Christianization made it necessary to build a new church in Gortyn around 600. Around 826, the Saracens conquered Crete, destroyed Gortyn and the church, and founded Crete's new capital Heraklion. In 960, Nikephoros Phokas recaptured Crete for the Byzantine Empire and drove the Arabs out of Crete. The episcopal see of Crete was moved to Chándakas. Nikephoros Phokas is said to have built a church on the site of the current church in 962. After the Fourth Crusade of 1204, Crete fell to the Venetians and the church became the Roman Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese of Heraklion. In 1544 the church burned down completely, only the skull relic of St. Tito could be saved. In 1669 the Turks conquered Crete and the church was converted into a mosque. The Venetians took the skull relic of St. Tito with them to Venice. The building was destroyed by an earthquake in 1856 and was rebuilt in the Ottoman style in 1872. Crete became autonomous in 1898 and joined Greece in 1913.
In the course of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the Muslim minority had to leave Crete; the mosque was converted into an Orthodox church building, which was dedicated to St. Tito after its completion in 1925. In 1966, the skull relic of St. Tito returned from Venice to the Church of Agios Titos in Heraklion.
Source: Wikipedia
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agios_Titos_(Iraklion)

Agios Titos (Greek Άγιος Τίτος) is an Orthodox church building in the center of the old town of Heraklion (Heraklion). It belongs to the Archdiocese of Crete and houses the skull relic of St. Titos.