Agios Nikolaos is the capital of Lasithi Prefecture. From 1960, its rapid tourist development began. Great filmmakers who loved the area, such as Jules Dassin and Walt Disney, contributed to this. It is worth visiting the Lake, a wonderful natural jewel with red rocks and abundant greenery, the Freedom Square in the center of the city with the Heroes' Monument and the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, the Cove, the Beach Road which is full of life, the Small and Megalo Nissi, in front of the entrance to the port, where the small one houses the city's lighthouse, as well as the beautiful marina of European infrastructure. The current city of Agios Nikolaos developed over the ancient city of "Latous to Kamara", which was built on an earlier Minoan site. It should be noted that it was the hometown of Nearchus, admiral of Alexander the Great. During the years of the Venetian rule, after the Byzantine period, the fort was built by Genoese pirates in "Mira bello", i.e. in a nice location and for this reason it was named so. Its current name has been inherited from the small Byzantine church of Ai Nikolas, which was built in the 7th century at the Nisi site.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou