Identification of the last fortified structures and recognition of the remaining historical vestiges Although the Venetian walls of Chania are still standing for much of their length, they suffer from a host of problems caused by historical circumstance, physical or chemical damage, demolition, silting up or burial under more modern constructions. The situation is, however, reversible; and given enough time it will be possible to recover about 95% of the monument, through a series of more or less costly interventions, which indeed are to a certain extent already under way. The configuration of the ground, certain weak points in the design of the fortifications and imperfections in their construction, as well as the relative suddenness of the Turkish attack in the summer of 1645, substantially subverted the value of Chania’s fortifications; and the city fell after a brief siege. The southwest side sustained serious damage by bombardment, especially in the area of the Lando bastion and cavalier tower, the Piatta Forma and the curtain wall between the Santa Lucia and Sabbionara bastions. The damage was repaired hastily, and not in the best manner. Further considerable damage was caused by lack of maintenance over the period of Turkish rule, while some of the interventions that were made were less than successful. By the middle of the 19th century the walls had entirely lost their reason for existence, and fell into neglect. During the period of international occupation (1878-1898), barracks and other military installations were built on the ramparts in a number of places. Towards the end of the century, during the brief years of Crete’s autonomy, the walls were considered an abominable symbol of the enslavement of the Christian population, which ought to be torn down to allow the city to grow and its older and newer areas to coalesce. The new town plan that was drawn up provided for the unification of the road systems of the outer and inner parts of the city. To achieve this, great breaches were made in the wall between the Gritti bastion and the Firka fort, in the western curtain wall, between the Lando and Piatta Forma bastions, the Porta Retimiotta was condemned, two more breaches were opened near the Santa Lucia bastion and one next to the Porta Sabbionara. A 1905 law handed the walls over to the Municipality of Chania for demolition, the ditch was allotted to private individuals and largely turned into vegetable plots, while large buildings slowly began to arise on the counterscarp side. Construction of the Municipal Market was begun in 1908, right over the Piatta Forma bastion; and the adjacent cavalier towers of Santa Maria and San Giovanni were pulled down and the material thrown into the ditch. During the 1930s the upper part of the Santa Lucia bastion was pulled down, and the material used to fill in the ditch. Similar interventions to fill the ditch and turn it into a road were carried out in the section between the Piatta Forma and Santa Lucia bastion (Nikeforou Foka Street), and in the southern section of the west curtain wall (Meletiou Piga Street). In the 1960s the huge Xenia Hotel was built above the Gritti bastion, and the “Asteri” cinema in the ditch beside the Lando bastion; the “Regina” cinema was built in a similar position beside the Santa Lucia bastion during this same period, and the neighbouring large Hotel Kriti during the period of the military dictatorship. Later still, unplanned and unlicensed poor suburbs sprang up on the embankments of the walls, while a number of hollows that had formed under the east and south curtain walls were taken over as “cave dwellings”. In the 1950s, large areas of the ditches that had been used to cultivate vegetables and were listed as “exchangeable” were handed over to Greek refugees from Turkey for rural resettlement. With the listing of the old city and its fortifications an “historic, listed monument”, a number of rescue and recovery actions were carried out, chiefly by the Ministry of Culture; these included extensive expropriations of land in the eastern, southern and western ditches. Small scale (for the moment) restoration projects have been carried out on the walls at various points; and most of the Santa Lucia bastion, the upper part of the west side of the Piatta Forma and part of the curtain wall between these bastions have been cleared. These localised interventions will help in the search for the earthed-over fortifications. The Ministry of Health and the City of Chania have jointly built communal housing for the squatters occupying the walls, and have pulled down some of their illegal constructions. Although the interventions that have been made in the past to the Venetian walls of Chania are both extensive and serious, the virtually complete recovery of the bulk of this important monument is nonetheless feasible, through a series of bold (but costly) actions that will wholly change the shape of the historic centre of the city (as the monumental and unified character of the fortifications is recovered), improve the quality of life and create a wide green belt with compatible land uses in this area. Realisation of these projects will require further archaeological research to locate and fully identify all the extant sections, in order to create a new and accurate survey of the present state of the monument. At the same time, a wealth of unpublished written and photographic material will have to be combed for additional construction details to supplement those gleaned from the (chiefly) Venetian archives known to date. Then there will have to be further research into construction materials and methods and an analysis of the causes of damage, following which a full restoration study for the monument can be drafted. This study will have to be accompanied by bold changes in the levels of some roads, and by new traffic arrangements.