Venetian Walls of Chania

The hill of Kastelli, above Chania’s port, has been inhabited since the Neolithic age and is identified with ancient Kydonia, a city that endured through Minoan, Mycenaean, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman times. The Byzantine wall that once protected it is thought to date from the 7th century AD, raised on the foundations of an earlier Hellenistic fortification. Builders reused stones from those old defences, along with spolia from ruined Kydonia, which repeated earthquakes had largely reduced to rubble. A seawater moat surrounded the wall, turning the hill into an artificial island for several centuries. The Venetians later repaired the circuit, which stayed in use until at least the 14th century, before the grander 16th-century Venetian walls rendered it obsolete. Today only part survives, much of it absorbed by the old town’s buildings. The perimeter ran 820 metres, enclosing 3.56 hectares, with four gates, two of which remain visible. The port-facing stretch is best preserved, so the fortification is most readily appreciated from the sea.