New city Neapoli and their Pope.

Neapoli was in the Venetian period also called ‘Villa Nova’, which literally means ‘new city’.

Until 1904 this city was the capital of the province of Lassithi. Nowadays it is Agios Nicolaos.
The city even produced a pope.
In the village of Kares, that is now part of the rural area of Neápoli, Petros Philargos was born in 1340 as the son of poor parents, who died soon after his birth from pestilence. He was raised by Franciscans and was educated in several European cities. Amongst other things he worked as a missionary in Lithuania.
In 1409 he took his place on the holy chair as Pope Alexander V. This only lasted one year because, as some stories have claimed, poison ended his life.