The paper presents the results of recording and documenting the churches of Lassithi Prefecture, East Crete, which have vessels immured into their exterior walls – “bacini”. Our research was part of the programme “Immured vessels in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine churches of Greece” conducted by the National Hellenic Research Foundation in collaboration with the respective Ephorates of Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

Sixty-six monuments with usually one to five or more, visible or covered vessels or just empty recesses‒traces of the immuring, have been located in Lassithi Prefecture, mostly concentrated in the lower Merabello and Isthmus of Ierapetra regions. Most of the buildings are simple barrel-vaulted single-nave churches which were built and decorated with bacini during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Nevertheless, some cases from the 13th, 19th and 20th centuries show the long life of the practice of immuring vessels in the area.