The late medieval period (13th-15th century) coincides in Crete with the early centuries of Venetian rule. The architecture of this period is little known, as few examples have survived to this day. Only a small number of the churches built by the Venetians in the major cities of the island have been preserved, while nothing from medieval urban architecture has survived in the Cretan cities.

In contrast, a large number of churches from the same period have been maintained in the countryside. These humble buildings, without high artistic intentions, have remained almost unnoticed by research. However, due to their large number and their dissemination across the space, they reveal an unprecedented extent of construction activity and a thriving population in the countryside. They also document the development of new construction techniques.

Examining the architecture of these ecclesiastical buildings gives the author of this volume the opportunity to delve into the impacts of Venetian rule on the construction work in medieval Crete, to trace some characteristics of the lost urban architecture of the island, and to seek the pathways followed by certain Gothic morphological features that were incorporated into the vocabulary of local building crews.

Additionally, through the study of the churches in the countryside, various aspects of the island's social life are illuminated: among other things, issues related to religious confrontations are highlighted, as well as the uses and alternating symbols that ecclesiastical buildings took on in a time when Crete was a place of the uneven encounter between two changing worlds, the declining Byzantine East and the dynamically expanding West.