Blog
- 28 May 2026Crete
Agios Stefanos. A small church with an enormous story inside
At the edge of an oak forest near Drakona stands a church so small that it would be easy to take it for an unremarkable roadside chapel. And yet, in its faded frescoes, a rare story of Saint Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity, has survived — together with a trace of a world in which Byzantine Crete met the West.
- 26 May 2026Crete
Zoodochos Pigi, Alikianos. The Life-Giving Spring among the orchards
Amid the citrus groves of the Chania plain stands a church that does not announce itself from a distance. You need to know what you are looking for. It is worth the effort — beneath its floor lie children, on its walls lives John the Stranger, and the dedication to the Life-Giving Spring carries a weight here that it carries nowhere else.
- 23 May 2026Crete
Μέσκλα / Meskla. The Church of the Transfiguration, or the light hidden in the mountains
On the edge of a mountain village near Chania stands a small church that is easy to miss. And yet its frescoes are not merely decoration. They lead the visitor through a story of light, death, repentance and hope.
- 5 January 2026iconography
The Moment When Heaven Splits Open. The Baptism of Christ in Iconography
The icon of the Baptism of the Lord does not show baptism in the sense in which the Gospel narrative presents it. It does not tell a story; it condenses theology. In a single image it gathers the moment when heaven opens, matter is sanctified, chaos gives way, and the cosmos — from the angels to the River Jordan — recognizes its Creator. Every detail of this scene is a precise sentence spoken in image. If we look carefully, we do not see an episode from the life of Jesus, but an icon of new creation.
- 31 December 2025ikonografia
Why in Crete it is easier to meet Saint George than an undented car
In Crete it is easier to come across an image of Saint George than an undented car. He is on the walls of village churches, along old routes, in places far from towns and their fortifications. He does not always fight a dragon; more often he simply is—alert, present, ready to intervene. This essay is not about a saint from a legend, but about a figure of protection in a world that, for centuries, lived in the shadow of very real threats: pirates, wars, abductions, and sudden death.
- 30 December 2025koscioly
Church of Saint George in Komitades (Sfakia)
The Church of Saint George in Komitades is a 14th-century sanctuary in the Sfakia region of Crete, known for its well-preserved frescoes painted by Ioannis Pagomenos and for a surviving foundation inscription dated to 1313–1314. Located far from main roads, in a stark mountain landscape, it stands as a valuable testimony to local piety, communal patronage, and the iconographic programme of the Venetian period.
- 27 December 2025koscioly
Panagia Church in Agios Ioannis (Aradena)
An exceptional church in an exceptional place.
- 17 December 2025ikonografia
Three Men on a Bench (To Say Nothing of the Thief)
On how Paradise was painted in Crete — and why it still matters.
- 12 December 2025miejsca
Elafonisi Beach, a Place That Deceives
The beauty of this landscape easily drowns out the fact that it was a witness to events closer to Greek tragedy than to a holiday story.
- 29 November 2025koscioly
Chromonastiri - Panagia Kera
In Chromonastiri even silence has its own weight. This is not a village trying to win the attention of visitors — it is a place that lives by its own rhythm, as if time flows differently here.
- 28 November 2025ikonografia
Pantokrator: A Presence Impossible to Ignore
In Cretan churches, the image of the Pantokrator does not tell a story – it establishes a relationship in which the human being ceases to be the centre, and God reclaims His place above the world.
- 12 November 2025kreta
Modern Crete and Orthodoxy – The Island’s Tale
How prayer, salt, and icons shaped everyday life on Crete from the Venetian era to the present.
- 2 November 2025bizancjum
The Orthodox Civilization – The Island’s Story
Why Crete survived.
- 28 September 2025biblistyka
How Much Judaism Remains in Eastern Orthodoxy – Part IV
Eastern Orthodoxy, though shaped in the Greek world, thinks about God far more like Israel than like late Latin Europe.
- 17 September 2025biblistyka
How Much Judaism Remains in Eastern Orthodoxy – Part III
If there is anywhere a nameless yet still pulsating core of Judaism preserved within Eastern Christianity, it is in the liturgy.
- 7 September 2025koscioly
Anisaraki, Church of Saint Anna
One of the most iconographically striking churches in Selino.
- 5 September 2025biblistyka
How Much Judaism Remains in Eastern Orthodoxy – Part II
The prohibition against depicting God is one of those moments when we see how deeply the Christian East grows out of Judaism – and how sharply it diverges from the West.
- 1 September 2025biblistyka
How Much Judaism Remains in Eastern Orthodoxy – Part I
There is something in the Eastern tradition that immediately evokes the prayer and spiritual experience of the Old Testament: a way of relating to God not poured into personal emotion, but immersed in rhythm, repetition, community, and mystery.
- 21 August 2025kreta
Crete – a History Written in Lime
How I read Crete through limewash, frescos, and churches.
- 18 August 2025duchowosc
The Prophet Elijah and an Unforgettable Panigiri
What shook me – and why it wasn’t the earthquake.
- 15 August 2025ikonografia
Dekapentavgoustos, or the Dormition of the Mother of God
A great feast and a great story told in icons and frescoes.
- 9 August 2025historia
A Subjective List of Infuriating Things
What annoys me, irritates me, and makes me laugh. Zero pomp, lots of side-eye.
- 8 August 2025koscioly
Maza, Church of Saint Nicholas
Small, beautiful, and wrapped in local legend.
- 3 June 2025historia
Crete keeps shaking — and not just recently.
The birth of a new island on an old map.
- 6 April 2025wenecja
What Gerola Saw — and What We Will Never See Again
The story of one church from Giuseppe Gerola’s monumental catalog.
- 23 March 2025koscioly
Churches, Eyes, and Alexis Zorbas
The Cretan mindset, or: Love me, darling – and later I’ll be your aunt again.
- 9 March 2025historia
Forgotten Heroines
Women of the Cretan resistance during the Second World War.
- 14 January 2025ikonografia
Seraphim and Cherubim in Cretan Iconography
Heavenly beings in the churches of Crete and why their presence is so rare and exceptional.
- 6 January 2025biblistyka
The Three Kings, or the guinea pig
An iconographic tale about kings who never existed.
- 14 December 2024duchowosc
How Jesus Was Bathed
Cretan Frescoes, Apocrypha, and Other Inconvenient Facts About the Nativity
- 10 November 2024historia
Crete in Darwinian Terms, or the Evolution of Attitude
What has changed over the years in how I see Crete.
- 2 November 2024kreta
Crete – a chronic condition. Part one.
How on earth does it get this addictive?
- 2 November 2024kreta
Crete – a chronic condition. Part two.
How on earth does it get this addictive?
- 21 September 2024koscioly
Hell in Deliana. A Cretan lesson in fire
The Church of Saint John the Baptist in Deliana as a key to the mentality of its age.
- 27 August 2024PLhistoria
Gdzie jest klucz do Krety
Brutalna konfrontacja z turystyczną rzeczywistością.