church review

Photographs by Patrick Comerford
from left: the Porta Guora was once the main entrance through the thick Venetian walls of réthymnon, built by
Michele sanmicheli; the 17th-century loggia was once the meeting place of réthymnon’s Venetian nobles; the
rimóndi fountain is half-hidden in a quiet corner of a bustling piazza; a carved Venetian doorway in the labyrinth of
narrow, tangled laneways and alleys in the old town of réthymnon.
from left: the minaret of the nerantzés Mosque offers breathtaking views across réthymnon, but is now closed for
repairs; the Kara Musa Pasha Mosque, close to the heroes’ square in réthymnon, now houses the Cretan
department of byzantine archaeology; a turkish fountain near the Public Gardens in réthymnon; an old church in
aghios nikólaos ... a reminder of how the Christian faith and the Christmas message have survived since the days of
the first ‘santa Claus’.
lake Voulisméni in the centre of aghios
nikólaos is said to be bottomless.
and baggy trousers played backgammon or simply
watched life passing by… slowly.
The Venetians knew this city as Castel Vecchio
and held it for four and a half centuries. The
fortezza is said to be the largest castle ever built by
the Venetians. It was erected in the late 16th
century in response to the pirate raids of
Barbarossa, and took ten years to build. It was
designed by the Sforza Pallavicini, but it failed its
purpose and Réthymnon fell to the Ottoman fleet
in less than 24 hours in 1645. The fortezza was
adapted to Turkish uses, and the Venetian cathedral
became a mosque, dedicated to the ruling sultan
Ibrahim and with a truly fabulous dome.
a mixed heritage
Below the fortezza, the old Venetian harbour,
with an elegant 16th-century lighthouse, is now
filled with small fishing caiques and pleasure
boats. Its function has been replaced by a new
harbour, and the old harbour is lined with
restaurants, cafés and tavernas.
Beyond the harbour, the town’s surviving
Venetian heritage includes the 17th-century
Loggia, once the meeting place of Venetian
nobles. The Rimóndi Fountain, built in 1588 and
rebuilt in 1626, is named after a Venetian
governor. It is half-hidden under a blocked-off
arcade in a quiet corner of an otherwise
bustling and busy piazza, and has spouting lions’
heads, a marble bowl and four fluted Corinthian
columns. The Porta Guora, once the main
entrance to the city through the thick Venetian
walls, was built by Michele Sanmicheli, the best
military architect of the day, and was once
crowned by the Venetian Lion of Saint Mark.
The Turks too left their architectural legacy
in the old quarter, including the Kara Musa
Pasha Mosque, with a small garden and vaulted
fountain; the Veli Pasha Mosque, with its
minaret; and the Nerantzés Mosque, which was
converted from a Franciscan church in 1657
and now houses the Hellenic Conservatory,
with its music school and concert hall. The
minaret of the Nerantzés Mosque was built as
late as 1890 and once offered breathtaking
views across the town. But it was being
restored when I visited it a few weeks ago and
was closed for repairs.
Throughout the town, Turkish fountains
appear in the most surprising and hidden
corners, some elaborate, many simple. The
former Turkish cemetery is now laid out as the
Public Gardens.
The Turks held on to Réthymnon until 1897.
After the ethnic cleansing of the early 1920s,
the town’s artistic, intellectual and cultural life
was enhanced from 1923 on following the
arrival of new waves of Greek-speaking
refugees from Smyrna in Asia Minor, and life in
Réthymnon was captured charmingly by
Pandelis Prevelakis in his book Tale of a Town
(1937), a nostalgic depiction of life there from
1898 to 1924. Strolling through the streets of
Réthymnon recently, it is hard to imagine at
times that much has changed.
the beauty of Mirabéllo
Aghios Nikólaos lies 65 km east of Iráklion.
Although it has no fortezza, and little of the
heritage or hidden Venetian and Ottoman
charms of the other island cities, it has a
charming setting on a hilly peninsula
surrounding Lake Voulisméni, a supposedly
bottomless lake, and looking out to bay the
Venetians name the Gulf of Mirabéllo or
“Beautiful View.”
This is the centre of upmarket tourism in
Crete, and experiences little of the brash or
vulgar nightlife that is part of the packages in
the resorts between here and Iráklion.
When the Venetians acquired Crete in the
early 13th century, Castel Mirabéllo was built
on this site. Each time it was levelled by
earthquakes and burned by pirates the castle
was rebuilt, on the last occasion by Sanmicheli
in the mid-16th century. But when the Venetians
surrendered Castel Mirabéllo to the Turks in
1645, they blew up the castle rather than hand
it over, and left it in ruins.
Today, nothing remains of the area’s Venetian
heritage. But a Venetian presence lingers in the
names of towns, villages, islands and islets
around, including Eloúnda, Spinalónga and
Neápoli, Crete’s very own “Naples” and the
birthplace in 1339 of Petros Philargos, who
became the only Cretan-born pope, Alexander V.
a faith that survives
The town’s Byzantine heritage has been more
persistent than its Venetian legacy. Many years
ago, when two small boys were beginning to
doubt the story of Santa Claus, we walked up
the hill from the bottomless lake to the
Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. There, where a few
elderly women were women were praying and
lighting candles, was an icon of Aghios Nikólaos,
the original Saint Nicholas of Myra, who gave his
name to the town in the eight century.
They took delight in the story of a saint
whose name survives in the town’s name and
whose faith persists to this day. The cathedral is
a reminder of how the Christian faith and the
Christmas message survive the changes and
turbulence of the centuries.
Canon Patrick Comerford is Director of
Spiritual Formation, the Church of
Ireland Theological Institute.
http://revpatrickcomerford.blogspot.com
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