All – Holy Virgin the Vrefokratousa at Agios Nikolaos
The particularly elongated church of the All-Holy Virgin in the old centre of the city of Agios Nikolaos is the result of two successive expansions to the west of the original barrel-vaulted, single-nave church. The original church and the first expansion have two layers of mural paintings of which the oldest, dating to the first decades of the 14th century, is located mainly in the eastern section with scenes from the Christological and Marian cycles. The second layer, representative of the so-called academic style, of the second half of the 14th century is located only in the barrel-vault of the westernmost section of the church as it appears it did not cover the first layer in the lower part of the lateral walls. A characteristic indication of the execution of two layers of wall paintings is the twice-preserved scene of Palm Sunday on the north and on the south wall. The depiction of only monastic saints in the lower band of the north wall may imply, as has been argued, that the church was first used as the catholicon of a monastery. The final expansion of the church, its western part, like a narthex, does not have wall paintings but has a funeral monument – arcosolium on the north wall, elevated and resting on ancones. According to the incised inscription it was built in 1602 for the young son of the castellan of the city of Heraklion, Laurentius Malipetri.
