7 Best Sights in Rethymnon, Crete

Here is yet more evidence of just how long Crete has cradled civilizations: a collection of bone tools from a Neolithic site at Gerani (west of Rethymnon); Minoan pottery; and an unfinished statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, from the Roman occupation (look for the ancient chisel marks). The museum is temporarily housed in the restored Venetian Church of St. Francisco while renovations are undertaken at the original site in the shadow of the Fortessa.

The west side of the peninsula on which Rethymnon sits is taken up almost entirely with this massive fortress, strategically surrounded by the sea and thick ramparts. The high well-preserved walls enclose a vast empty space occupied by a few scattered buildings—a well-restored mosque, two churches, and abandoned barracks that once housed the town brothels—and are surrounded by fields of wildflowers in spring. After a small fortress on the site failed to thwart a 1571 attack of 40 pirate galleys, Venetians conscripted 100,000 forced laborers from the town and surrounding villages to build the huge compound. It didn't fulfill its purpose of keeping out the Turks: Rethymnon surrendered after a three-week siege in 1646.

A restored Venetian palazzo almost in the shadow of the Neratze minaret houses a delightful collection of rustic furnishings, tools, weavings, and a re-creation of a traditional Cretan shopping street that provide a charming and vivid picture of what life on Crete was like until well into the 20th century.

In a handsome Venetian building that was once a soap factory, there is now an airy space given over to contemporary art. Interesting and provocative, the museum has a permanent collection of over 500 works by Greek artists covering a range of genres from 1950 onward. Temporary exhibitions from artists all over the world feature, as do an assembly of works from Rethymnian Lefteris Kanakakis.

The most visible sign of the Turkish occupation of Rethymnon is the graceful minaret, one of the few to survive in Greece, that rises above the Neratze. This large stone structure looming over the narrow lanes of the city center was a monastery, then a church under the Venetians, and was subsequently converted to a mosque under the Ottomans before being transformed into today's concert hall.

Rethymnon's small inner harbor, with its restored 19th-century 9-meter-tall (30-foot-tall) Egyptian lighthouse, comes to life in warm weather, when restaurant tables clutter the quayside and fishing craft and pleasure boats are crammed chockablock into the minute space.

The carefully restored clubhouse of the local nobility is now enclosed in glass and houses the Archaeological Museum's shop, selling a selection of books and reproductions of artifacts from its collections. This remnant of Venetian rule is enhanced by the nearby Rimondi Fountain, just down the street at the end of Platanos Square, and is one of the town's most welcoming sights, spilling refreshing streams from several lions' heads. You'll come upon several other fountains as you wander through the labyrinth of narrow streets.