Old Town (Heraklion) Travel Guide - Free

The area now occupied by Heraklion developed around a naturally useful harbour on Crete's north coast. After the Byzantine period, Arab rulers established Chandax as a fortified capital in the ninth century, creating the urban and defensive nucleus from which the later city grew. Byzantine control returned in the tenth century, but the settlement's importance remained tied to its harbour, walls and position on maritime routes. The name Chandax, adapted through later languages, is linked to the Arabic term for a defensive ditch or moat, reflecting the fortified character of the early town.

Following the Fourth Crusade, Venice acquired Crete in 1204 and developed Chandax, known to the Venetians as Candia, into the island's administrative capital and a major eastern Mediterranean port. Venetian engineers strengthened the fortifications, reorganised the harbour and shaped the civic centre with loggias, fountains, churches and warehouses. The surviving Morosini Fountain, the Loggia, the Basilica of St Mark and the sea fortress later called Koules belong to this broad phase of urban development. Trade in agricultural produce, shipping and the administration of Venetian Crete gave the centre a cosmopolitan, commercially focused character.

The Ottoman conquest of Candia followed the prolonged siege of 1648–1669, one of the longest military sieges in European history. After the city's surrender, the urban centre changed administratively and religiously: churches were converted or reassigned, mosques appeared, and Ottoman officials and merchants joined the existing population. The fortifications remained central to the city's identity, while the harbour continued to support commerce and movement. Although later alterations obscured parts of the Venetian city, the mixture of churches, former mosques, fountains, arcades and defensive works still records this transition.

Crete gained autonomy from the Ottoman Empire in 1898, and the island was united with Greece in 1913. Heraklion's old centre then became part of a modernising Greek city, with new commercial activity and civic institutions layered over the medieval street plan. The name Heraklion increasingly replaced Candia in official and everyday use. The central market streets, harbour approaches and public squares retained their commercial role, while the defensive walls and historic buildings became markers of local heritage rather than the city's primary military infrastructure.

The Second World War brought bombing and serious damage to Heraklion, affecting parts of the historic centre and its building stock. Post-war reconstruction introduced modern blocks and traffic routes beside surviving Venetian and Ottoman structures, producing the uneven architectural texture visible today. Later conservation and pedestrianisation helped protect important monuments and made parts of the centre more accessible on foot. Old Town Heraklion now functions simultaneously as a heritage district, a shopping and dining centre, and an everyday urban neighbourhood, with restoration and commercial change continuing alongside long-established local uses.