All the streets leading to Rethimno (or Rethymnon) take you to the Four Martyrs Square, just outside of the Porta Guora. Behind this gate lies the old town, but if you come any time between May 1 and October 31 you won’t be able to ride your bike in it. The largest part of the old town is inaccessible to all vehicles, twenty-four hours a day, due to a strict prohibition (see the area marked with the dotted blue line on the city map).

Leave the shutters and the windows of your room open so that you can wake early and enjoy the cool breeze and beautiful colours of the dawn. The town at this time is wonderfully inviting as it wakes from its sleep, and the only people at the Venetian harbourare the few fishermen mending their nets and the tavern owners sweeping their floors. Take a stroll at the harbour and then sit at the “Venetsianiko” Cafe Bar to enjoy a good breakfast or a simple cup of coffee in the company of the harbour ducks that will gather around the crumbs of bread you throw them. Very little has changed in the harbour since the Venetians built it in 1300 hoping to protect their galleys. The lighthouse, the cobbled area along the waterfront where people stroll, and many of the houses overlooking the harbour are from the time of the Venetian rule. But the Turkish cannons that once aimed at the enemy’s ships are today part of the mole, and they look downwards and are used to tie up the fishing boats.

After the Venetian harbour - and while it’s still early - go see the Venetian fortress, the famousFortezza. It opens at 8:30 a.m., and until 10:00 a.m. there are very few visitors to break the stillness. After ten, though, and until the fortress closes at six, it is usually full of crowds that won’t let you explore it quietly.

Apart from the walls and bastions, which are excellently preserved, there aren’t too many things to see in the fortress. Still, it is worth walking along the wall and on the embrasures, and going back to the past, some 350 years ago, when the raging Turks attacked the fortress and the Venetians defended it. On the north side and close to the wall are the remnants of the old Administration Building, an amazing mansion with 49 doors and 81 windows. Next to it is what is left of the old storerooms that were once here, and underneath the storerooms are the cisterns of the fort that survive in good condition. Somewhere at the centre you can see the church of Agios Nikolaos, which was later turned into a mosque with the addition of an impressive dome (that survives intact) and a minaret (that has tumbled to pieces). Finally, on the east side there is a small, Russian-built church dedicated to Aghii Theodori, the only thing that reminds of the Russian army’s short and friendly stay (1897 - 1909).

Just opposite the Fortezza gate you will see a large building made of stone. This used to be a Turkish prison, but since 1989 it houses the Archaeological Museum of Rethimno (, open Tuesday through Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m), probably the most handsome and well organised museum in Crete. On the outside, the building has kept its original imposing appearance, but on the inside it has been very carefully modified so as to highlight the archaeological treasures exhibited. There are tables with good explanatory texts

in both Greek and English, photographs, and drawings of the excavation sites. In this way the exhibits are no longer cold and incomprehensible, but they become small “windows” through which the visitor can travel to another place and time and gain a well rounded perspective of it. Inside the museum’s modern showcases, as well as outside of them (placed right next to you), are some unique masterpieces of craftsmen that lived in times long past: statuettes, jewellery, weapons, tools and pottery from the Neolithic age; ritual axes, seal stones, golden jewels, stone coffins and statuettes from the Minoan Kingdom; and glass vases, pottery, statuettes, coins and statues from the classical, hellenistic and Roman times.

This small and pleasant museum cannot have tired you very much. If you wish to continue with more, you have the option of visiting two very good museums, which are also small and pleasant and will not tire you.
The Historic and Folklore Museum has collected with great care and

sensitivity hundreds of items of folk art, textiles, old photographs, musical instruments, traditional tools and other objects of everyday life, all exhibited in a very lively manner. A little further down the street is the Folklore Collection of the Lykeion Ellinidon with some very interesting embroideries, woven fabrics, local costumes, and a variety of household items.

A few steps further is the Petichaki Square, which is at the very centre of things. It features the famousRimondi Fountain, a Venetian fountain of historic significance with three lion heads. Water is still running from their mouths, offering the worn out traveller relief from the heat of the day. Some of the best coffee bars in town are concentrated here, and from the break of day till late at night they are never empty of their young clientele. All around the square, the streets are full of shops and, more than any place in town, they are bustling with activity.
East of the Petichaki Square, at the end of Palaiologou street, is the Venetian Lotzia (40), an elegant building of the end of the 16th century where the Venetian lords met and had fun or carried on their business.

South of the Petichaki Square, at the end of Vernardou street, is the Nerantze Mosque. The building started out as a Venetian church dedicated to Santa Maria, but in 1657 it was converted to a mosque and acquired a roof and three wonderful domes and the highest minaret in town. (The minaret survives to this day and must certainly offer the best view in town, but unfortunately you can’t go up there, because they say it isn’t very stable!) In 1925, the building was christened “the St. Nickolas church” - though it was never used as such - and today it houses the Rethimno conservatory. If you happen to pass by and catch a few notes from a practising musician, go inside and take a seat. You will enjoy some fine music at a place designed to create an out-of this-world sensation.

West of the Petichaki Square, on Nikiforou Foka street, is the Church of the Mistress of the Angels (47). It was built by the Venetians in 1609 and was initially dedicated to Mary Magdalen. When the Turks took over they gave it to the Greeks, who dedicated it to the Mistress of the Angels. After a while, though, they changed their mind, took it back, and turned it into a mosque.

Her Holiness was very displeased with this move, so Shemade Her icon disappear and did not let the minaret go up. Desperate of ever seeing it stand, the Turks left the minaret incomplete, but they still didn’t give the church back. Yet the sacrilege was continued even after their departure from the scene, only this time it was committed by the Christians; instead of using the place as a church they turned it into army quarters! This time Her Holiness lost Her patience. In 1917, about two hundred and seventy years after the church was first taken, She appeared in two soldiers’ dreams and revealed where Her icon was hidden. The icon was indeed found beneath the floor of the church, and ever since then this has been the favourite church of the faithful.

Whichever street you take in the old town,you will be taking a walk through History. Dozens of Venetian and Turkish buildings and monuments and more than seven hundred Venetian facades are scattered in every alley and corner. Buildings that have stood the test of Time and today house the restaurant that you will eat in, the bar where you’ll spend the evening, and the hotel where you will go to rest.

After all this walking, the well looked after Municipal Garden (41) will revive you with its cool shade and comfortable benches (a function very different from its previous use as a Turkish cemetery). Better still, take your sunscreen lotion and beach towel and go straight to the municipal beach next to the harbour. Though it is usually full of people, it is also very clean. For more quiet, you have twelve kilometres of sand to the east, and they are all yours to choose where you will lay your towel!