traveldk.com

Make an early start at Plateia Tessaron Martyron, the large square from which the Venetian Porta Guora – the only intact remnant of the Venetian city walls – leads into the old town. The Tessaron Martyron (Four Martyrs) Church at the northeast corner of the square honours four Cretans executed in 1824 by the Turks for remaining secretly Christian despite an apparent conversion to Islam. A pointed minaret by the church is all that is left of one of the city’s Turkish mosques.

Passing through the gate, walk north on Ethnikis Antistasis, which bustles with produce stalls, small open-fronted shops and cafés serving tiny glasses of raki and cups of coffee. This is a great place to buy Cretan herbs, honey or olive oil to take home.

Market flower stall

Follow Ethnikis Antistasis north to the Church of Agios Frangiskos (St Francis), which was formerly part of a Venetian Roman Catholic monastery. The doorway is beautifully carved and the basilica is still used by the town’s small Roman Catholic community.

At the north end of Ethnikis Antistasis is the Nerantzes Mosque, the town’s best preserved Ottoman relic. It is now a music school and concert hall, and its slender, pointed minaret, which has been closed for restoration, is due to reopen in 2003. If it is open, clamber up the winding stairs to the parapet for the best view of the old town, harbour, fortress and mountains to the south of Rethymno.

Back at street level, turn left onto Vernardou and, midway along on your left, step into the Historical and Folk Art Museum, with its collection of tools, textiles and traditional costume (see Historical and Folk Art Museum).

Leaving the museum, turn right onto Epimenidou and look in at the Franzeskaki Collection of Traditional Weaving and Embroidery, with its marvellously colourful exhibits. Here can be found some of the finest textile work in the whole of Greece (see Franzeskaki Collection)

Turn right again on Arabatzoglou, which leads down to Petihaki, a small square crammed with cafés. Stop for a drink and snack at Zanafoti, an old-fashioned café close to the 17th-century Rimondi Fountain, built in 1627 to supply part of the old town with fresh drinking water.

From the square, bear left past the fountain, along Mesolongiou and Himaras, to the Rethymno Archaeological Museum, which displays Minoan coffins and burial goods, as well as Neolithic and Roman finds (see Rethymno Archaeological Museum).

From the museum, cross Katehaki to the Fortetza, built in 1573 by the Venetians (see Venetian Fortress (Fortetza) & Venetian and Turkish Castles). This massive for-tress was built in response to the threat of Turkish invasion, but in the end it proved no match for the might of the Ottoman Empire.

Conclude your tour down at the pretty Venetian (or Inner) Harbour, and treat yourself to a seafood lunch at Mourayio Maria, set in a 16th-century building with quayside tables.