The little Venice of Crete: the wonderful old town of Chania

Although the two-thousand-metre peaks of the White Mountains are only a few kilometres away as the crow flies from the centre of Crete's second-largest city, the metropolis of western Crete seems to face the Aegean Sea completely.

A car-free promenade lines the huge harbour basin from Venetian times. Along it are not only many cafés and taverns, but also three museums, a mosque and large, partly still intact ship halls. The Venetians had their galleys built, repaired and stored for the winter in them. Today the harbour is heavily silted up. Ferries and freighters no longer fit in, only yachts, excursion and fishing boats are moored at its quays.

Just behind the waterfront begins the maze of alleys of the largely car-free old town, old town palaces and tall historic tenement houses line the often slightly curved streets. Many artisans and sophisticated shops have settled in the old town, and in sometimes roofless, romantic ruins of centuries-old houses from Venetian times, Cretan musicians play for dinner.

Chania is a town with a rich and fascinating history, believed to be built on the site of the ancient Minoan city of Kydonia. During the Byzantine era, the city was fortified, and later, the Venetians turned it into a massive castle with strong walls. In the 19th century, the Ottoman sultan visited Crete and decided to construct a naval base in the nearby Gulf of Souda. During the Cretan State period of autonomy, many impressive buildings were constructed in the city and its suburb of Halepa. The city reached its peak of glory during the hoisting of the Greek flag in the fortress of Firkas in 1913, marking the final union of Crete with Greece.

Today, visitors to Chania can explore many interesting attractions like:

• The Venetian harbour with its Egyptian lighthouse and the mosque
• The great Arsenal which houses the Center for Mediterranean Architecture
• The hill of Kastelli with the old palace and Minoan settlement
• The Maritime Museum of Crete in Fort Firkas
• The picturesque Ottoman district of Splantzia
• The Archaeological Museum of Chania
• The Historical Archive of Crete
• The Central Market
• The pedestrian road of Kum Kapi
• The pedestrian road and beachfront of Nea Chora
• The Chania Cathedral 'Mitropoli'

City walls, the new town and the most beautiful view of Chania

The Archaeological Museum was housed for a long time in an old Catholic church in the old town; since 2022 it has had a new building in the Chalepa district. Another church is probably the only one in the world to have both a Christian bell tower and a Muslim minaret.

The inland side of Chania's historic centre is still nearly completely surrounded by its medieval walls. You can even walk along certain sections. The new town extends on the other side of these walls, but as a tourist, it's really not a must-see. Only the city park with its long-established coffee house and a summer cinema is very much worth a visit here.

The most beautiful sight is the view of Chania from the water. To enjoy it, you have two options: either you walk out along the long harbour pier, or you take a short boat trip out to sea. Then you, too, are sure to be impressed by the beauty of the old city, set against the backdrop of orange groves and high mountains.

A day in Chania: a walking tour of the sights of the old town

1. Market Hall. It's only about 40 to 45 minutes by public bus from Georgioupolis to Chania. The bus station is situated in the new town, about 10 minutes from the Market Hall, where the new and old towns meet. Starting from the bus station, simply turn right onto the wide Kidonias road and follow it to the end. Then take a left onto Odos Apokoronos street, and already you'll be standing in front of the beautiful building with its cross-shaped aisles. The hall is over 100 years old and had long since given up most of its actual purpose as a central market for the locals; visitors mainly came here for herbs, honey and other Cretan delicacies. It has been under restoration for several years. According to the latest reports from summer 2026, the shops are to open gradually from autumn 2026, with the official opening planned for December 2026. Feel free to ask us before your trip whether the Market Hall is open yet.

2. The church of Agios Nikolaos and the old town district of Splantzia. From the north side of the Market Hall, go right along Odos Tsouderon street and after two minutes turn left onto Odos Daskalogianni street. It will take you to the popular Platia 1821. The church of Agios Nikolaos is situated here. It has been through a very chequered history: it was first a church, then a mosque and now a church again. Its façade reflects its past: to the left, the façade is flanked by a church tower, to the right by an Ottoman minaret. You're not likely to find that anywhere else in the world.

The historic quarter of Splantzia extends between the church and the harbour. This district in particular has retained its original, historic features. Simply criss-cross through the narrow alleyways here all the way down to the water. Once you arrive at the shore, take a right and head out onto the pier. It's 600 m long, and you can go as far as you like, but at the end the Venetian Lighthouse awaits you.

3. Harbour promenade: Venetian shipyards and the Great Arsenal. The Firkas Fortress guards the other side of the harbour entrance. It marks the end of your walk, which now simply takes you along the harbour. In one of the medieval shipyards of the eastern harbour stands a seaworthy replica of a Minoan ship. It was with small vessels such as these that the Cretans crossed the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea 3,500 years ago. And with this replica, they sailed from Crete all the way to Piraeus in 2004. No fear!

Now follow the harbour promenade to view other Venetian shipyards. Some are now used as workshops and store houses. Directly after them looms the Great Arsenal, the weapon storehouse and armoury of the Venetians. It was wonderfully restored in 2002. Today, it houses the Center for Mediterranean Architecture with interesting temporary exhibitions. The next building worth seeing on the waterfront is the striking Yiali Tzami Mosque from the year 1645. Small excursion boats are docked by the quays, waiting to whisk you away to sea for half an hour.

4. Harbour: Yiali Tzami Mosque, café and taverna district, Firkas Fortress. The café and taverna district of the port really starts at the Yiali Tzami Mosque. Stroll past all the restaurants to Firkas Fortress with the Nautical Museum, dedicated to Greek maritime history and also to the German occupation during the Second World War. Cafés entice you to take a break with beautiful harbour views right in front of the entrance to the fortress.

From the entrance to the fortress, take the narrow alleyway Odos Angelou sloping gently uphill and then turn to the left onto the arrow-straight Odos Theotokopoulou street. It later becomes Odos Zambeliou street. On both streets, you will find numerous charming shops and small restaurants. At the end of Zambeliou street you will arrive at Platia Santrivani square, which goes down to the water. Here, turn right into Odos Chalidon street. On it stands the Gothic church of San Francesco, which housed the Archaeological Museum until 2020. The museum itself is now in its new building in Chalepa (more on this below).

5. Old town: synagogue, Schiavo Bastion, leather shops. Then it's finally time for a late lunch. Perhaps you've already spotted a restaurant on the way that you'd like to return to. You're sure to find something in the immediate surroundings of Platia Santrivani, whether you want a hearty meal or just a small snack. Afterwards, go back a short distance on Odos Zambeliou street and take the second street on your left, Odos Kondilaki. A small sign will point out the Etz Hayyim Synagogue to you. It is open to visitors Monday to Thursday from 10 am to 4 pm and on Friday from 10 am to 3 pm, and closed at weekends and on public holidays. Admission is 4 euros, including a guided tour.

At the end of the alley rises the medieval Schiavo Bastion, with views over most of the historic centre; recently, though, it was closed because of its poor condition. Turn left here, and you are back in Odos Chalidon street. Now take a right, and shortly afterwards turn into Odos Skridlof street, where the city's leather shops are concentrated.

6. City Park. Odos Skridlof street takes you back to the Market Hall. If you're still up for more, head to the City Park on the broad Tzanakaki street to finish off your tour. It's barely 10 minutes' walk away. Benches are positioned in the shade beneath trees from all over the world, and a small enclosure is home to kri-kri, the Cretan wild goats. The highlight of the park is its coffee house "Kipos", which has been here since the early 20th century.

It's 10 to 15 minutes' walk from the City Park back to the bus station. If you'd also like to watch a screening in the City Park summer cinema, then you will need to take a taxi back to Georgioupolis.

Museums of Crete: the Archaeological Museum in Chania

No museum in all of Crete had a more beautiful building than the Gothic-style former Venetian Monastery of Saint Francis, which housed the Archaeological Museum until 2020. Since 2022, the museum has shown its collection in a large new building in the Chalepa district, east of the old town. On display are the finds that archaeologists have made in Chania and the surrounding area over the last 100 years, from the Neolithic to Roman times.

A clay sealing from the second half of the 15th century B.C., found on Kastelli Hill, is practically sensational. It depicts a collection of multi-storey Minoan buildings with two gates, crowned by the horns of a bull. It looks like a small city. Archaeologists conjecture that this is a representation of Minoan Chania, which occupied the low hill right by the harbour. Other sealings show different motifs, including what seem to be almost modern depictions of humans and animals. One very special item is an 8 cm long clay wedge with 12 seal impressions, which probably once enclosed a particularly large parchment scroll.

60 clay bull figurines will also capture your attention. They date from the period between about 400 B.C. and 200 A.D., vary in size, and would originally have been painted. They were found in a sanctuary of Poseidon in western Crete, where the god of the sea was worshipped in particular as the god of fertility and as the Earth-Shaker who sent earthquakes. The bull statuettes were offerings that people gave in lieu of expensive living bulls, or in memory of a bull sacrifice that had in fact been made.

Roman mosaics from the 3rd century A.D. were uncovered close to the Market Hall in Chania. One shows how the god Dionysus, accompanied by a satyr, finds Ariadne asleep on the beach of Naxos. The four seasons are personified in the corners. The rectangular outer panels display scenes and figures from comedies by Menander, a particularly popular Greek dramatist at the time. A second mosaic, only partly preserved, shows Dionysus riding on a panther, and a third shows Amymone being attacked by a satyr, and the god Poseidon coming to her rescue. There is also a lovely little mosaic showing a cockfight.

Info: Archaeological Museum of Chania, 15 Skra Street, Chalepa. Open April to October 8 am to 8 pm, November to March 8.30 am to 3.30 pm, closed on Tuesdays. Admission 15 euros, reduced 8 euros.

Museums of Crete: the Nautical Museum in Chania

The only maritime museum on our island is in the conspicuous, dark-red building at the western end of the harbour, at the entrance to Firkas Fortress. Here you will see a number of things which can give you a better understanding of historic Chania. If you concentrate on the major exhibits, you need little more than half an hour for your visit.

A very vivid model shows a Venetian galley from the 16th century. It was with ships such as these that the Venetians crossed the Mediterranean Sea, and these ships were also berthed in the harbour of Chania. Their sails were only set in favourable winds. Their 'motor' was composed of 220 to 260 galley slaves. They sat on long benches on the open deck, exposed to the wind and weather. Often, they were even chained and were driven to pull harder by the lashes of a whip. Usually they had been overpowered by the Venetians on their raids, or bought at the slave markets of the Mediterranean. The main weapon on board was the long naval ram on the bow. There were only very few cannons. They were installed just before clashing with the enemy and usually fired to the front.

The Venetians safely stored their ships in large shipyards right by the docks for winter, with its occasional storms and high seas. There were 17 or 18 of these shipyards in Chania. Seven are still preserved, and you can see them on your tour of the city. A model shows one of them in its original state. You will also easily recognise some of the places you have already seen in Chania on the scale model of the late medieval city (1:500).

If you are interested in ancient history, or simply paid attention in history class at school, another hall will be of particular interest to you. Here, the events of great historical naval battles are explained with the aid of models. You might want to limit yourself to the most important of these battles: the Battle of Salamis in the year 480 B.C. At that time, the Persians were threatening Athens, and in turn all of Greece, and ultimately even Europe as a whole. The Persians had already destroyed the Athenian Acropolis. This naval battle would be decisive. The Athenians and their allies forged a brilliant plan. They lured the Persians into a narrow strait between the Attic mainland and the off-shore island of Salamis. There, they attacked them with small, highly manoeuvrable ships and boldly routed the Persian fleet. Athens and western civilisation were saved.

An exhibition on the upper floor tells of another battle, from the Second World War. Numerous photos, newspaper clippings and military maps describe in detail the events of the Battle of Crete in 1941 and the subsequent German occupation of the island. Uniforms and the equipment of soldiers and partisans complement this very informative and factual exhibition. It offers an unbiased depiction of events.

Museums of Crete: the Minoan ship of Chania

The wealth and prosperity of Crete in the 2nd millennium B.C. was based not only on the fertility of the island, but also on intense trade operated by the Minoans in the eastern Mediterranean. But what did their ships look like? So far, not a single wreck of a Minoan ship has been found, only representations of them on murals. But you can see a Minoan ship: in the Neorio Moro, a Venetian shipyard at the eastern end of the harbour that belongs to the Nautical Museum.

This ship demonstrated its seaworthiness in the Olympic year of 2004. With a crew of 12 men and women, it left the port of Chania on 29 May. It stopped off at the Rodopou Peninsula in Crete, the islands of Antikythira and Kythira, the Peloponnesian ports of Monemvasia and Kyparissi, then the islands of Spetses, Hydra and Poros, Methana on the Peloponnese and finally the island of Aegina. On 24 June, it reached its destination: the Athenian port city of Piraeus. In a total of ten days, it had travelled 210 nautical miles. With oars alone it managed 2.4 knots, with oars and the aid of sails 3.2 knots. The weather played along: the wind never blew more strongly than 3 on the Beaufort scale.

The development of this experimental ship began in 2001. Greek nautical archaeologists and other scientists assumed that the Minoan ship was the further development of a raft such as the one built by Thor Heyerdahl. They had to consider how the Minoans managed to turn a very flat vessel into a semi-cylindrical, seaworthy hull. They first developed their ideas with the help of 3-D animations on the computer and then finally had a model made on a scale of 1:5.

The keel was laid, or in other words, construction of the ship itself began, in December 2002. The scientists worked together with boat builders from a traditional Cretan boatyard. A 22 m long cypress trunk was bent to form the keel. The cypress boards that were intended to form the ship's hull were laid out flat next to the keel to begin with. Then construction began, step by step. The boards were held together with ropes and wooden pegs. Once the shell had been erected, the entire structure was reinforced by cross-beams and finally the ship's sides were braced with two bent cypress trunks. The boards were sealed against sea water with several coatings of natural paint, and cloths soaked in grease and tree resin. On 1 December 2003, the ship was launched.

You can walk around the ship in the exhibition in the shipyard and take a look from above. You will see lots of photos of the construction process and the basic tools used to build the ship. Afterwards, you will be glad that we no longer need ships like that to get to Crete!

The Venizelos Tombs near Chania

High above Chania, on the approach to the Akrotiri Peninsula, the Cretan statesmen Eleftherios and Sofoklis Venizelos (1864-1936 and 1894-1964) lie buried. The tombs of father and son are embedded in the pavement on a large terrace in front of a little church dedicated to the prophet Elijah. The far-reaching view from the beautiful park with a small pine forest stretches far beyond Chania, all the way to the White Mountains and along the coast right up to the Rodopou Peninsula.

In his day, Eleftherios Venizelos had expressed the desire to be buried here: on this spot in January 1897 the Greek flag was flown during the last rebellion against Ottoman rule, which he led. Shells from European battleships blew apart the flag pole. Thereupon the Cretan Spiros Kayales took the flag in his hands and raised it himself, turning his body into a flagpole. In response, the Europeans ceased fire. In 1997 a monumental bronze statue was erected to this 'Hero of Akrotiri', which can be seen for miles around and stands just a short walk from the tombs. A shell from a Russian battleship also hit the old Church of Elijah. It is a belief held by many Cretans that it was no coincidence that, later, there was a fatal explosion on board the ship.

The inscription on the Venizelos Tomb is a quote from a speech made by Eleftherios Venizelos: "Dear friends, the deceased laid to rest here was truly a man of great courage, with great faith in himself and in the people over whom he ruled. He may have had his shortcomings, but he was never short of courage and he never abandoned himself to fate, because he would not allow that fate determined the destiny of his country. On the contrary, he built on all the fiery passion he held within, on his intellectual and physical strength ..."

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