Trimartiri

At the west end of Stivanadika street, one can find Chalidon street and the square of the Cathedral of the Trimartiri (Presentation of the Virgin Mary), the main Cathedral of the city.

Chalidon is the pedestrian street that connects the city to the Venetian Port. On Chalidon Street you can find the buildings of the historical Philological Association Chrysostomos and of the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania, the Old Franciscan convent that housed the old Archaeological Museum of Chania, and the beautiful Catholic Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption.

The pedestrian Street is lined with all sorts of cafes, souvenirs & jewelry, clothes & sportswear shops, and ice-cream & frozen yogurt shops. At its end is where the Old Town Hall used to be, right in front of the Starbucks cafe today, where the locals used to meet before they started their night stroll at the Old Port.

Right in the middle of Chalidon Street on your right hand as you descend towards the Old Port, constructed in 1860 on the site of a 14th-century Venetian church that the Turks had later turned into a soap factory sits the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Presentation of Virgin Mary better known to locals as the Trimartiri Cathedral.

According to historical evidence, Trimartiri used to be a place of worship even before the Venetians. When the Ottomans took over control and despite the use of the building as a soap factory, a small corner of it with an icon of the Presentation of Virgin Mary continued to function as an unofficial Christian shrine with the tolerance of the Turkish pasha.

In the 1850s with the factory going bankrupt and the Christian population of the city on the rise the request of the locals for a new Cathedral that would replace their small cathedral of Agioi Anargyroi at the time was accepted. According to the tradition the child of the Turkish Pasha had fallen into the well, to the south of the temple. The desperate Turk Pasha appealed to the Virgin Mary to help him save his child and promised he would give the church back to the Christians in return. The child finally got out of the well safe and sound and the Turk Pasha kept his promise and started the construction of the new church.

The three-aisle Basilica was built in the style of Venetian architecture and the icon of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary was permanently placed under its roof. Today many traditional Cretan weddings and almost every special religious ceremony are hosted in the most iconic Church in the city. On its shade, one of the largest and prettiest squares of the city offers great opportunities for a coffee or a drink.