The church of St. Catherine, which is located next to the Metropolitan Cathedral church of Heraklion, Saint Minas, is a building of the 16th century and was a dependency of the Holy Monastery of Mount Sinai, which is located in Egypt.

The Monastery of St. Catherine states that had already been established since the 10th century. The church of the monastery is built with influences of Venetian architecture of that era on the island. From 1669 until 1922, the church was converted by the Turks into a mosque named Zoulfiakar Ali mosque.

The monastery had a school of university education where taught ancient Greek philosophers and writers, rhetoric, theology and painting. Here trained great Cretan writers and artists as Vitsentzos Kornaros, George Hortatzis, Michael Damaskinos and El Greco. Here was developed the "Cretan School of Painting", a movement created by the Byzantine tradition brought to the island with the hagiographers of Constantinople and Renaissance influences of Italian painting of the Venetian Crete.

Since 1967, the church of Saint Catherine houses the most important exhibition of Byzantine icons and sacred religious objects in Crete, from 14th to 19th century, with main interest six unique icons by Michael Damaskinos.

You can visit the church of St. Catherine of Sinai through our tours Tour 1 and Tour 3 and admire the most important Byzantine art exhibition of the island.