Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Kanevárou. It's also here that you'll find traces of the oldest
walls
; there were two rings,
one defending Kastélli alone, a later set encompassing the whole of the medieval city.
The Naval Museum
Daily: April-Oct 9am-4pm, Nov-March 9am-2pm • €3 •
T
28210 91875
The hefty bastion at the western end of the harbour now houses Crete's
Naval Museum
.
The collection consists of model ships and other naval ephemera tracing the history of
Greek navigation, plus a section on the 1941
Battle of Crete
with fascinating artefacts,
and poignant photos depicting the suffering here under the Nazis. From the
Fírkas
, the
fortress behind the museum, the modern Greek flag was first flown on Crete, in 1913.
Byzantine Museum
Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm • €2, combined ticket with Archeological Museum €3 •
T
28210 96046
At the back of the Naval Museum lies the
Byzantine Museum
(entrance at the top of
Theotokopoúlou), located in the Venetian Chapel of San Salvatore, with an interesting
collection of mosaics, icons and jewellery from the various periods of Byzantine rule.
7
City walls and backstreets
Beyond the Byzantine museum, follow Pireós inland outside the best-preserved stretch
of the old city walls. Following the walls around on the inside is rather trickier, but far
more enjoyable. This is where you'll stumble on some of the most picturesque little
alleyways and finest Venetian houses in Haniá. Keep your eyes open for details on the
houses, such as old wooden balconies or stone coats of arms. The arch of the
Renieri
Gate
, at the bottom of Moschón, is particularly elegant. There are also lots of
interesting art and craft stores around here, along Theotokopóulou and the many alleys
that run off, while between the Renieri Gate and Hálidhon are more such alleys,
though here the emphasis is more on tavernas, bars and cafés.
The synagogue
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm • Free •
W
www.etz-hayyim-hania.org
At the end of a small alley of the west side of Kóndhilaki is Haniá's fifteenth-century
Etz Hayyim
synagogue
, recently renovated. All but one of the city's Jews were rounded
up by the Nazi occupation forces in 1944, but they met their end (along with around
500 members of the captured Cretan resistance) when the transport ship taking them
to Auschwitz was torpedoed by a British submarine of the island of Mílos.
Odhós Hálidhon and beyond
Behind the harbour lie the less picturesque but more lively sections of the old city.
Odhós Hálidhon
is lined with touristy shops, in the midst of which you'll find the
archeological museum
,
folklore museum
and the modern
cathedral
. Behind the
cathedral square are cafés and some of the more animated shopping areas, leading up to
the back of the market: on
Odhós Skrídhlof
(“Leather Street”) traditional leathermakers
plied their trade, but today just one small workshop remains, the rest having been
replaced with imported leather goods and souvenirs, but there are still leather bargains
(shoes, bags and more) to be had. Further east behind the market, the
Splántzia
quarter
is a maze of ancient alleys with tumbledown Venetian stonework and wooden
balconies; there are a couple of
minarets
here, one on Dhaliáni, and the other attached
to the church of Áyios Nikólaos in Platía 1821. A clutch of new, popular
mezedhopolía
and
ouzerís
along Dhaliáni have revitalized this area.
Archeological Museum
Odhós Hálidhon 28 • Tues-Sun 8am-3pm • €2, combined ticket with Byzantine Museum €3 •
T
28210 90334
A short way up Hálidhon, on the right, is Haniá's
Archeological Museum
, housed in
the Venetian-built church of San Francesco. The building has been substantially
