I love being surprised by a destination. When I planned out my itinerary for Greece, Crete – and Heraklion in particular – was on my radar for its Minoan history. (You can read about that here.) The palace-cities of Knossos and Phaistos marked the Golden Age of Crete way back in the Bronze Age. But as I did my research, I discovered that there was a second golden age for this, the largest of the Greek islands. That second period corresponds to Crete’s time under Venetian rule.

In 1204, the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire was dissolved and divided by Catholic forces as part of the Fourth Crusade. Crete, until then a Byzantine province, was given to a Greek Catholic noble, Boniface of Montferrat, who turned right around and sold the island to Venice in 1205. Venice, as you probably know, was in a fight with other Italian city-states like Genoa and with the Ottoman Empire for supremacy over Mediterranean trade routes, and Crete’s strategic location made it a valuable commodity.

After several years spent solidifying control, Venice would rule the island via a proxy Kingdom of Crete until 1669, time corresponding to both the rise of Heraklion as a mighty port and Crete as a whole having a renaissance of its own.

In Byzantine (and Arab, which took the island for a period) times, Heraklion was called Chandax. Under Venetian rule, it was renamed Candia, and the city became the administrative center of Crete. Of course, the first thing necessary to do in order to solidify control was to fortify the new capital. There were some Byzantine-era walls, but the Venetians would turn Candia into a fortress. Walls were constructed around the land portions of the city, with seven bastions and three gates. These walls were, in some places, up to forty feet thick.

Today’s Heraklion (the Greek name returned with unification with Greece in the early 20th century) still has much of its demarcation from those walls, of which a good portion still stands. While some parts aren’t in great shape, others, like the area around the Jesus Gate, are in reasonable condition.

But the primary focus of the Venetian fortifications was along the water, protecting Heraklion’s harbor, from which Venetian galleys would sail the Mediterranean. The Rocca a Mare (literally rock of the ocean) fortress was completed in 1540 over the remains of prior Arab and Byzantine minor fortifications. It included more than forty pre-sighted cannons, with walls more than twenty feet thick. While it has been restored to its Venetian glory, rather than upkept through the centuries. a visit to Rocca a Mare is a necessity to understand how important this place was.

You can get some of the experience just by walking past the fortress, which, by the way, is the best sunset spot in central Heraklion. But entering is a better way to appreciate the construction, and to learn from some pretty solid exhibits about the fortifications of the city, and the ultimate 1669 Ottoman conquest. And the view from the top is an amazing way to gain perspective on the Venetian harbor.

From the top, it is easy to see what the harbor would have looked like. Two of three main port facilities exist at least in part, along with a storage building. (They are not right on the water anymore thanks to the building of a waterfront road.) These docks would have once housed up to 100 galleys at a time, or so signage says.

Between the port and the walls (and even some outside the walls) are quite a number of surviving Venetian constructions. Some of these are easy to find via Google maps; others are sort of hidden in plain sight. Fortunately, at the Historical Museum of Crete, one room is dedicated almost solely to this subject, complete with a scale model of what Candia would have looked like under Venetian rule. Around the room are pictures of buildings dating back to Venetian times, and buttons that, when pressed, give you a two second spotlight on them on the model. All that is left to you is to find them in the modern world!

One of the most impressive is the Venetian Loggia. Once a community center and now home to Heraklion’s city hall, this beautiful Renaissance building was finished in 1628. The exterior and central courtyard can be visited, although signage isn’t terrific.

By visiting both Rocca a Mare and the Historical Museum of Crete, one gets a full picture of the loggia, which was basically torn down overnight (the top floor and decorations were removed) in the modern era. After public outcry, the bottom floor was refurbished and the top reconstructed, but few of the original stone carvings survived. Those that did are on display at the museum, highlighted by the winged lion of Venice.

Of course, the lion of Venice is everywhere from this time period, from a beautiful grave marker of a Jewish noble family (rare to find such a thing) on display at the museum, to other public construction.

My favorite Venetian remainder is the beautiful Morosini Fountain. Built in 1628 (same as the loggia, and many of the Renaissance-style beautification projects in Candia were completed right around this same time), the fountain features lions at its center. It was originally meant for spring water for drinking, helping to replace the hundreds of city wells here, along with a few other fountains. (The Bembo fountain, just a few minutes’ walk away, has an Ottoman water station next to it, as well.) Now the defining feature of the central square of Heraklion’s old city, the Morosini Fountain is pleasant at all times of the day, with wonderful cafes on all sides.

Venetian control of Crete would come to an end in 1669, when after a 21 year siege, Candia finally surrendered to the Ottoman Empire. (The siege is the central focus of the exhibits of Rocca a Mare.) Ottoman control would be marked by a long series of uprisings by the local Christian population, culminating first in the independent Republic of Crete of 1898 and then unification with Greece in 1913.

Venetian Crete, and Heraklion/Candia specifically, marked a second golden age for this island after the Minoan era of millennia past. And with so much surviving, it is easy to imagine just how impressive this city would have been during those days. From the port facilities and nearby Rocca a Mare fortress to the civic buildings and fountains, to the city walls themselves, Venetian Candia comes to life with each stroll around Heraklion’s historic center.

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