Saint Menus Cathedral

The Cathedral of Saint Menas is the Greek Orthodox metropolitan cathedral of the Archdiocese of Crete, the largest and most prominent church in Heraklion. Built in the Byzantine cross-domed style, it can accommodate around 8,000 worshippers, placing it among the largest cathedrals in Greece. Construction began in 1862 to designs by Athanasios Moussis, an architect from Epirus, and took 32 years to complete — the cathedral was finally consecrated in 1895 while Crete was still under late Ottoman rule. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Menas, the patron saint of Heraklion, whose feast day on 11 November is marked each year by a major procession through the old city. It stands at the historic heart of Heraklion, beside an older 18th-century chapel of the same name that served as its predecessor.