Help us find the missing churches

Crete is an island of churches — there is no denying it. Whether you are here for the first time or the thirty-first, that fact is impossible to miss. Churches are an inseparable part of the island's landscape, like signposts, like silent reminders of its difficult history.

Travelling across the island you see them everywhere — several in every town, one beside another, built in different styles and on different scales. They are simply there. The churches we concern ourselves with here, however, are usually hidden, less visible, as if ashamed of their appearance and condition. Some stand in completely wild and remote places, like hermit monks keeping away from the crowd. Some are hidden among tall grass, scrub, and olive groves. Others stand in cemeteries, quiet, like guardians of a place of eternal rest. Often forgotten, damaged, abandoned. Some still serve a liturgical purpose — someone tends to them, someone brings flowers. But most are slowly disappearing, irreversibly.

These churches are the true story of the island's history, witnesses to its turbulent past. They are an important heritage not only for the proud people of Crete — they are a heritage that belongs to all of us. And it is from this conviction that the idea behind this project was born.

Over a hundred years ago, Giuseppe Gerola began cataloguing the Venetian churches of Crete (Monumenti Venetti nell'Isola di Creta). His work was continued in the 1960s by Konstantinos Lassithiotakis, resulting in the publication of a monumental catalogue of over 800 Byzantine and Venetian churches of Crete.

Today I am attempting, modestly, to replicate that work, to verify it, to place it in a contemporary frame. So far I have managed to identify just over 300 churches from the Byzantine and Venetian periods. Some are widely known; others represent a hidden treasure that almost no one remembers any more. A forgotten heritage of humanity.

And here, dear reader — whether you are just passing through or a resident — there is a place for your help. You can help me locate and identify places I have not yet visited, places that have slipped past me. I cannot offer payment, no institution stands behind me, and all the work you see here I do alone, at my own expense. But you can play your part in saving our shared cultural heritage from oblivion.

How? First, create an account — without that we cannot keep the submissions in order. Registration is straightforward and will take a few minutes. Send a request for an account and you will receive an email with a link to set your password. Once logged in, you will find the submission form — enter the name of the place, upload a photo, and drop a pin on the map. That is all. We take care of the rest.

I can also assure you that your data is well protected and processed within the EU. We do not use any form of activity tracking, aggressive cookies, profiling, or other modern methods of user identification. The project is entirely non-profit — we sell nothing here, including your data. All the information gathered about the churches, the entire database, is available under open terms — anyone can download and use it.