Iráklion (Herakleion; pop. 85,000), two-thirds of the way along the north coast of Crete, is the island's largest town, its administrative center and most important commercial port, and the see of an Orthodox archbishop. In ancient times Iráklion was the port of Knossos, but declined in the Roman period and was given a fresh lease of life from A
.D. 824 onwards by the Saracens, who called the town Chandak. The Venetians surrounded the town, which they called Candia, with a 5km/3mile long circuit of massive walls (by Michele Sammicheli, 1538 onwards) and made it the island's capital. In the 16th and 17th centuries Iráklion was the headquarters of an important school of painting, the members of which included the celebrated Greek/Spanish painter El Greco.
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