What annoys me, irritates me, and makes me laugh. Zero pomp, lots of side-eye.
From the field
Blog
Field notes and essays on the churches of Crete: their frescoes, painters, inscriptions and the people around them.
Maza, Church of Saint Nicholas
Small, beautiful, and wrapped in local legend.
In the catalogue
Crete keeps shaking — and not just recently.
The birth of a new island on an old map.
What Gerola Saw — and What We Will Never See Again
The story of one church from Giuseppe Gerola’s monumental catalog.
Churches, Eyes, and Alexis Zorbas
The Cretan mindset, or: Love me, darling – and later I’ll be your aunt again.
Forgotten Heroines
Women of the Cretan resistance during the Second World War.
Seraphim and Cherubim in Cretan Iconography
Heavenly beings in the churches of Crete and why their presence is so rare and exceptional.
The Three Kings, or the guinea pig
An iconographic tale about kings who never existed.
How Jesus Was Bathed
Cretan Frescoes, Apocrypha, and Other Inconvenient Facts About the Nativity
Crete in Darwinian Terms, or the Evolution of Attitude
What has changed over the years in how I see Crete.
How on earth does it get this addictive?
How on earth does it get this addictive?