Calling to the faithful

Crete has had strong Christian and Muslim influence in its history and both the fortess's contents and the skyline of Rethymnon makes this very clear.

Chapel in the fortress
The chapel within the Fortress of Rethymnon seen from the front.

Icons of St. Catharine
The chapel is dedicated to St. Catharine, who was martyred on a spiked wheel, the original Catharine Wheel. Remember children, don't play with fireworks or spiked chariot wheels with Christian virgins strapped to them.

Icon of St. Christpher with a dog's head
As far as I could make out from the eclesiastical cyrillic, this is St. Christopher. So why has he got an animal's head?

The mosque within the Fortress of Rethymnon.
Right next to the chapel is the rather larger mosque.

The mihrab
The mihrab within the mosque indicates the direction of mecca

Clock tower
The churches all have clock towers to summon the faithful. These are all computer controlled and were suffering from a problem when I was there. Apparently this year Crete (and the rest of Europe) changed from Summer time to Winter time later than usual. The programs that control the church clocks had not been adjust ed though and were all an hour out while I was there. Apparently the first Sunday they were wrong for caused serious chaos.

Photos of the mosque towers to follow.)