Heraklion museum to host round table on the siege of Candia on October 10

The Archaeological Museum of Heraklion will host a round table titled “The hill of the Monastery of Agios Fragkiskos and the fall of Candia” on Saturday, October 10, 2026, in the museum’s Lecture Hall and Hall of Frescoes.

The event forms one of four pillars of the museum’s temporary exhibition “In the middle of the world: Crete in European cartography from the 16th to 18th century, representations and identities,” organizers said, designed to give visitors a fuller presentation of the exhibition’s themes. Readers can find more background on the cartography exhibition in an earlier report.

The museum building itself sits on the ancient high ground of the city, on the site where the Venetian Monastery of Agios Fragkiskos once stood — a landmark for ships arriving at the port from across the Mediterranean. After the monastery was converted into the Hunkar Mosque, it was there that the conqueror of the ruined city of Candia performed the first prayer following a twenty-one-year siege, according to the museum.

The round table aims to present aspects and details of the siege of Candia through the account of an Ottoman figure who narrated the siege, through the register documenting the conversion of the Monastery of Agios Fragkiskos into the Hunkar Mosque, and through archaeological research carried out in recent years both at the monastery’s remains — on the hill where the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion now stands — and at the walls of Candia, which withstood two decades of Ottoman assaults before the city’s fall.

Speakers

Dr. Ilias Kolovos of the National Hellenic Research Foundation will speak on “An Ottoman anti-hero in the siege of Candia, his narrative, and the register on the conversion of the Monastery of Agios Fragkiskos into the Hunkar Mosque.”

Dr. Vaso Sythiakaki and Eleni Kanaki, archaeologists with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion, will present “Rescue excavations in the courtyard of the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion during the garden renovation works.”

Dr. Stella Chrysoulaki, general director of the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, will moderate the discussion.

The presentation will close with a screening of the film “The Siege of Candia” (Magenta TV, directed by Orfeas Peretzis, narrated by Alexandros Logothetis), which documents the final days of the siege and the city’s fall to the Ottomans. Those interested in similar cultural programming can browse other experiences in Crete.