Potential for the creation of educational and cultural itineraries and leisure activities for tourists with an innovative presentation of the city walls to the public As things stand today, the eastern and western sides of Chania’s Venetian fortifications are preserved in reasonably good condition, as is the defensive ditch in front of them. The specific exceptions are the crude openings that have been pierced through the eastern and western walls to allow the passage of traffic, and the destruction of a significant proportion of the small remaining section of the northern wall for the same reason. Sightseeing possibilities The outer faces of the walls can be visited, and this visit can be organised fairly easily, especially on the east and west sides, either from the level of the ditch or from the adjacent roadway. It is also possible to improve the image that has been created by the breaches in the walls, so as to restore the sense of a continuous façade without preventing the passage of vehicular traffic. On the south side, however, things are more difficult, since the properties in this area back right onto the wall and the owners of those properties have used it in the foundations of their buildings. This is, unfortunately, also true on the inner face of the south wall, where new constructions have been built flush against it. For this reason any intervention to the southern wall would have to be accompanied by legislative measures imposing the removal or remodelling of the buildings that currently prevent access to the face of the wall. One potentially very interesting aspect is the tour of the inner side of the fortifications, first of all along the top of the wall. This should be organised in a way that reveals the logic of the fortifications, and should include seating facilities at points where the view is particularly attractive. Such an itinerary should be comprehensive in conception, and should therefore take into consideration the facades of the buildings on the streets adjoining the wall, particularly on the eastern and western sides, and the form of the necessary retaining walls. Particular attention should be paid to these walls and to the height and shape of the buildings along the length of these streets, as well as to the planting of trees on their pavements, since these will form the foreground to the views of the city that the visitor will obtain from the walls. A second possibility, that would provide an even more interesting experience, would involve creating an unobtrusive underground passageway through the terrepleins along the inner side of the wall. This underground walkway could be lit by regular openings along its length. The visitor could thus not only observe the interior of the wall and its construction but would encounter a series of recesses within the wall – underground exhibition areas –which could house displays illustrating the history of the city. This underground passage, from natural light to darkness, which would be enhanced by carefully designed artificial lighting and which would be easy to ventilate, being covered only by earth, could also incorporate outlook points in places where the wall has been destroyed and could open out on to some particularly striking points along the fortifications, creating observation platforms suspended between earth, sea and sky. Of course, a project of this nature would require very careful preliminary study by a team of experts including archaeologists, architects, civil engineers, artificial lighting architects, etc. Possibilities for the cultural exploitation of the wall through research programmes The fact that the wall exists in a vital symbiosis with the sea, the port into which it extends, the unique natural surroundings and the Old City itself, to the degree of course that it is carefully developed and its relationship with the fortifications brought out and enhanced, constitutes a solid basis for a series of preliminary studies for the development of a strategic plan of sensible and well documented interventions that could transform a simple visit to the fortifications into a unique experience, thanks to the outstanding beauty of the geographical setting of this city. There are a number of places of particular interest, both for their reuse potential and for their inherent archaeological, architectural and artistic value. An initial list, given in the order in which they appear on the map, might include: 01. The Customs House. 02. The group of seven dockyards. 03. The dockyards at the northeast corner of the wall, with the bastion and the Porta Sabbionara. 04. Restoration and redesigning of the segment of the wall in the area where traffic currently passes through. 05. The end of the wall where it meets the southeast Santa Lucia bastion. 06. Redesigning of the eastern defensive ditch and making provision of possible uses for this area. 07. Uncovering and signposting of the traces of the southern line of the wall. 08. The end of the wall where it meets the southwest Schiavo bastion. 09. Development of the traffic entrance on the western side of the wall. 10. Improving the present uses along the length of the wall and examining proposals for the site of the Xenia Hotel (on the Gritti bastion). 11. Restoration of the Firka Fort (Rivellino) and exploration of possible uses for it. 12. The underground walkway project described above, which would require careful study of the data for the entire perimeter of the wall. These are just some of the points that could be included in a series of interventions that would transform the Old City of Chania into a unique Monument of European Civilisation.