The original church was built shortly after the Saracens had been expelled from the island in 961, and Christianity once again became the religion of the island. The head of Titos was brought here, from Gortyna, and became a bit of a figurhead, as it were; so much so that the Venetians sent the head to Venice, where it remained until the 1950s, before being restored to its rightful place. The minaret which accompanied the building, during Ottoman occupation, was destroyed shortly after the last Muslim was forced off the island, in the ethnic-cleansing/population exchange with Turkey, brought about by the treaty of Versaille (1922), in 1923.
