Heraklion City Walk and Cretan Treat

Heraklion

Our tour starts with a visit to the beautiful city of Heraklion. Heraklion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete. It is one of the largest cities in Greece .The Venetians improved on the ditch of the city by building enormous fortifications, most of which are still in place, including a giant wall, in places up to 40 m thick, with 7 bastions, and a fortress of Koule Chandax was renamed Candia and became the seat of the Duke of Candia, and the Venetian administrative district of Crete became known as "regno di Candia". Main sightseeing’s of the tour : open-air market, the the Venetian Loggia, and the Cathedral of St Minas or the Church of St. Titus and the 25th August street which links the port, the Marina and the Castle of Koules with the heart of the city and a main open air market. We end up in Lion’s square where we taste bougatsa cheese pie along and Greek coffee.

Cathedral of St. Minas

Pass-by Only

Cathedral of St Minas

The Loggia is also in the centre of Heraklion, on 25th of August Street, a few yards downhill from the Basilica of St Mark and the Lions. The elegant building of the Loggia is one of the finest monuments of Venetian Crete. The Loggia (noblemen's club) now standing in Heraklion was constructed in 1626-28 by Francesco Morosini, the same man who built the Lions Fountain (Fontana Morosini) in Eleftheriou Venizelou Square. This is the fourth and final Loggia built during the period of Venetian rule. Very little information is available on the first three, so we do not really know what they looked like.