The church is one of the oldest monuments of its type. It is of wider interest in European terms, as regards both the course of 13^th century architecture and its presence in Greece and the rest of the continent.

The two storey design of the original sanctuary chapels is a further distinctive feature unique among monuments of its type. On Crete, the Church of Ss. Peter and Paul served as a model for the Church of St. Nicholas in Chania, built in the late 13^th or early 14^th century.

The numerous unique features of the monument uncovered during restoration work reveal similarities with precisely contemporary 13^th century buildings of the same architectural form at Silvanes, Venzone and Rieti in France and Italy.