Lady of Angels, Orthodox church in the old town of Rethymno, Crete, Greece
Notre-Dame-des-Anges, also called Mikri Panagia, is a small Eastern Orthodox church in the old town of Rethymno, Crete, listed as both a protected building and an archaeological site in Greece. The building follows a cross-shaped plan with three arms, a layout common in Venetian-era religious construction.
The church was built in the early 16th century when Rethymno was under Venetian rule, and it originally served as a Catholic church for the Dominicans. During the Ottoman period it was converted into a mosque, with a minaret added, before being restored in 1917 and returned to use as an Orthodox church.
The church is also known as Mikri Panagia, meaning Little Virgin in Greek, a name used by locals to tell it apart from a larger church dedicated to the same figure. This kind of nickname shows how people in Rethymno keep track of similar buildings through simple, everyday language.
The church sits inside the old town of Rethymno, where the streets are narrow and best explored on foot. Visiting early in the morning or in the late afternoon tends to be quieter, and the surrounding lanes are worth walking through to see the other historic buildings nearby.
Before receiving its current dedication, the church was devoted to Mary Magdalene, a detail that local memory has kept alive even though the name changed after restoration. This earlier dedication reflects the Dominicans' choices when they first built and used the space under Venetian rule.
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