After the recapture of Crete by the Byzantines in 961, the old diocese of Eleftherni was renamed Avlopotamos or Mylopotamos with its headquarters in the current village of Episkopi in the Municipality of Mylopotamos, where the name of the settlement came from.
The Episcopal Church of Agios Ioannis in the Diocese of Mylopotamos
The church of Agios Ioannis in the Diocese of Mylopotamos, known as Fragoklissia, is located in the center of the settlement. It is a large episcopal church from the second Byzantine period which was transformed into the seat of a Latin diocese under the Latin archbishop of Khandaka after the Venetians settled in Crete. After the treaty of Alexios Kallergis with the Venetians, in 1299, the area where the village was located was rented to Alexios. During this period, on the site of a mid-Byzantine three-aisled basilica, which was probably destroyed by a very strong earthquake in 1303, a new church was built in the type of inscribed cruciform with a dome resting on four pillars. The north and south-west walls of the mid-Byzantine basilica were incorporated into the new church, while the foundations of an early Christian basilica can be seen outside its arch, which prove that there was an early Christian basilica in the same location, from which parts of the sculptured decoration are also preserved. Impressive western-style sculptural decoration is preserved on the eastern face of the church, while on the north wall the lintel of a rectangular doorway is decorated with a relief coat of arms of the Latin bishop Jacobo Sorreto dated 1568. The church contains frescoes from the beginning of the 14th century, which, despite their extensive destruction, testify to an excellent painter. From the fresco decoration, a depiction of the Virgin Platytera surrounded by angels in pairs, the Preparation of the Throne, the Apostles of Pentecost and the Ascension can be distinguished.