Venetian Cathedral

Department Archive
Collection Byzantine Research Fund
Reference No. BRF/02/01/16/030
Level Item
Place Náxos
Naxos Island
Donor/Creator Fotheringham, Mr John Knight
Scope and Content South façade. The photograph is annotated in ink at the back.
Further information Naxos and Paros were the two central islands of the Duchy of the Archipelago (or of Naxos or of the Aegean) which was established by Italian city states, especially Genoa, Pisa and Venice, in the Aegean after the siege of Constantinople in 1204. Marco Sanudo, nephew of Enrico Dandolo, who had established himself as the Duke of Naxia or of the Archipelagos, conquered the island in 1210, divided it into provinces and rebuilt its fortifications.

The Catholic cathedral located on the central square of the castle is a baroque building decorated with lavish marble on the pavement (opus sectile) and valuable icons. The Greek Orthodox communities continued, however, to resist and established themselves around the fortress of Apalyros/Apalire which later fell to Sanudo too.