Réthymno

Rethymno grew on Crete's northern shore as a Venetian trading station between Chania and Heraklion. Its small harbor, narrow streets and arched doorways belonged to a town with its own bishop and nobility. It is thought to stand on the site of ancient Rhithymna. In 1571 the corsair Ulutz Ali plundered and burned Rethymno. Two years later the Venetians began the Fortezza, a bastioned fortress on the hill above the town. Its defenses could not save Venetian rule during the Cretan War: Ottoman forces conquered Rethymno in 1646, and the town became the center of an Ottoman sanjak.