Koules Fortress

The Koules is a citadel placed at the entrance of the antique port of Heraklion, Crete, Greece. It turned into constructed with the aid of the Republic of Venice within the early sixteenth century, and remains in proper situation nowadays. The site was in all likelihood first fortified through the Arabs in the 9th or 10th centuries. By the second one Byzantine duration, a tower called Castellum Comunis stood at the web site. In 1303, the tower become destroyed in an earthquake but changed into repaired. In 1462, the Venetian Senate approved a programme to enhance the fortifications of Candia.

Eventually, the Byzantine tower changed into demolished in 1523, and the Castello a Mare started out to be built alternatively. Old ships had been filled with stone, and have been sunk to form a breakwater and increase the region of the platform on which the castle turned into constructed. The castle become finished in 1540. In 1630, the fortress become armed with 18 cannons at the floor ground, and 25 cannons on the pathway leading to the roof.

During the 21-year long Siege of Candia, Ottoman batteries without problems neutralized the castle's firepower. The Ottomans sooner or later took the castle in 1669, after the Venetians surrendered the entire city. They did now not make any fundamental alterations to the fortress, except for the additions of a few battlements and embrasures. They built a small castle referred to as Little Koules on the landward aspect, but this was demolished in 1936 whilst the city become being modernized.