Nikos Kazantzakis Grave
The grave of the important Cretan writer Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) is located at the highest point of the Walls of Heraklion, the Martinengo Bastion, with panoramic views to the ugly, but also historical, concrete jungle of Heraklion. His books "The Last Temptation", "Christ re-crucified" and "Captain Michalis" were designated as "anti-Christian" and "sacrilegious" and had brought the church very close to the author's excommunication in 1955. The Greek Church had asked the Greek State to forbid the distribution of the books.
Nikos Kazantzakis died of leukemia on October 26, 1957 in Germany. The archbishop Theoklitos did not give permission to expose his body for public veneration in Athens on November 4th. On November 5th, the body arrived in Crete and was exposed in the cathedal of Saint Minas for one day. On November 6th, the Archbishop of Crete Eugen, under the presence of the Greek Minister of Education Gerokostopoulos, conducted the funeral, while fanatics burnt books outside the church. The body was then accompanied by thousands of Cretans to the grave, atop the bastion of Martinengo.
His grave is austere with a wooden cross and a plaque engraved with his famous phrase: "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I'm free".
