Venetian shipyards

Venetian shipyards – one of the ancient historical monuments of Chania.

In ancient times the Venetian fleet controlled the Mediterranean Sea. For his functioning, special docks in Greece in the middle of the 16th century were built. What is more, for the year 1526, 2 docks were constructed and used right there.

The space is a chain of domed buildings, made of white stone, with arch passes and jointed walls. The length of each camera is more than 50 meters, the height is about 10, which is explained by the sizes of ships. Docks look immense, which is unusual for the 16th century, where cranes or special machines did not exist.

For the convenience of repairing and ships transporting there was water in docks. So, the workers could understand where the hole was and fix it. 

The Venetian fleet made 22 docks, all of them formed a line and looked like a stone wall of repairing ships spaces. Unfortunately, nowadays, only 7 of them exist, the rest was destroyed during the wars. But even these 7 docks show all the power of the Venetian fleet.

Today one dock with several ships is opened for tourists. Inside visitors smell an odor of something wet and rotten – these are wooden parts, placed for the centuries in the water. The dock does not have artificial lighting, only two round windows on the roof. 

The last six docks are used by purpose, so they are closed for visiting. The quality of the building is impressive because the spaces are still well-functioning.