The municipality of Agios Nikolaos ( "Saint Nicholas"; ) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

located in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. The current municipality is the result of the merger in 2011 between the former municipalities of Agios Nikolaos, Neapoli and the community of Vrachasi, which became municipal units. Its seat is the town of Ágios Nikólaos, its "historical capital" the town of Neapoli.

History

Already in the 19th century there was an

Eparchy Eparchy ( ''eparchía'' "overlordship") is an Ecclesiology, ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. An eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the administra ...

Mirambello (), the dimensions of which corresponded exactly to the current municipality of Agios Nikolaos. It was named after the Venetian fort ''Mirambello,'' which existed in the port town of Agios Nikolaos in the Middle Ages. However, the place was already meaningless at that time, which is why ''Kenourio Chorio,'' today's Neapoli, was chosen as the capital. Occasionally the district of Lasithi was also included in the eparchy. The

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

had settled Muslims from

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

on the island with the aim of converting all of Crete to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. For this reason, censuses were carried out regularly.

20th century to today

Since the independence of Crete, there has been a province Mirambello in the prefecture of

Lasithi Lasithi () is the easternmost regional unit on the island of Crete, to the east of Heraklion. Its capital is Agios Nikolaos, the other major towns being Ierapetra and Sitia. The mountains include the Dikti in the west and the Thrypti in the ...

. While Agios Nikolaos became the prefectural capital, Neapolis became the administrative center of the province of Mirambello. As part of the municipal reform in 1997, the province was dissolved and all previous municipalities were incorporated into the two municipalities of Neapoli and Agios Nikolaos. In 2006, Vrachasi split off from Neapoli. In 2011, these three municipalities were downgraded to municipal units and merged into the municipality of Agios Nikolaos.

Geography

The municipality of Agios Nikolaos was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 3 former municipalities, which became municipal units: * Agios Nikolaos * Neapoli * Vrachasi The municipality has an area of , the municipal unit .

References

External links

* {{Agios Nikolaos div Municipalities of Crete Populated places in Lasithi