Saint John the Theologian church at Paliani
Outside the walls of Paliani Monastery in Venerato there is the cemeterial church of Saint John the Theologian (John the Apostle). The single-nave arched-roofed church was frescoed in the middle of the 14th century by the painter Georgios, who according to an inscription asks the priest to commemorate him. The frescoes are preserved in parts in the main temple, where scenes of the Evangelical circle are distinguished, while in the sanctuary they are more discernible.
The frescoes in the arch include the Deesis, in which John the Baptist was replaced by John the Evangelist, the Pentecost and the Ascension on the north side of the arch, the Birth and the Present at the south side of the arch. Particularly important are the two scenes in the lower part of the south wall dome, which come from the live of John the Evangelist, a rare circle in the Byzantine world that is preserved in a few churches in Crete (in Paliani and the settlements of Margarites, Kalogerou and Selli- Rethymnon). On the left we see John to read the gospel to the student Prochorus and on the left, as the inscription indicates, Ioannis tears down the idols of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
