Crete - Rethymno - Naradje Mosque.

 

After sketching by the marina we walked back towards the old town as I wanted to find the Minaret that I had sketched.

Municipal workers were trimming up the palm trees along the sea side promenade.

Although the minaret stretches high above the rest of the old town it wasn't easy to see once we got into the narrow streets but eventually we found it.

Naradje (Bitter Orange) Mosque The building in the past was a Catholic monastery of the Augustinian Order named Santa Maria. After the conquest of Rethymno by the Ottomans, the monastery was turned into a mosque, which was known as the Mosque of Gazi Hüseyin Pasha or the Neradje Mosque. Following the 1923 population exchange between Turkey and Greece and the departure of the Muslim population of Crete in 1924, the building was turned into a music school.^[2]

The minaret was built in 1890, during the last years of Turkish rule in Crete. From Wikipedia

It sits on the edge of a large square with a school on the opposite side.

We exited the square through this arch

and found the Archaeological Museum. Closed, but we made note of the opening hours and will return.

Some detail from the arch.

Church next to our "local" supermarket.