Why go
Begin with Kasteli, where evidence of Minoan settlement lies beneath the present town, then read the Venetian harbor and fortifications as later additions. The old town is a compact place to see centuries of Cretan history without needing a long chronological tour.
The full story
Ancient Kydonia occupied the ground beneath today’s Chania, with excavations in Kasteli revealing traces of the Minoan settlement. Its position beside the harbor and near fertile land kept the site useful through later eras. After Byzantine and Arab periods, Venetian rule reshaped the port and defenses. Parts of the fortifications still mark the old town’s edge, even where the walls no longer stand in full. Ottoman rule added another layer to the city and its neighborhoods. In the early twentieth century, Chania became central to the movement for Crete’s union with Greece. Eleftherios Venizelos led the Therisos revolt in 1905; after the Balkan Wars, the Greek flag was raised at Fort Firka in the old harbor in 1913. Those changes are easier to grasp on foot: Kasteli, the harbor works and Fort Firka put different chapters within a short walk of one another.