Although they dominate the city’s modern waterfront, the surviving remains of the Venetian shipyards (arsenali) represent only a small part of the complexes originally constructed. The earliest group, the Arsenali Antichi, was built in 1281 and repeatedly rebuilt until its destruction by the earthquake of 1810. Of the four vaulted bays of the Arsenali Bembo or Vecchi, erected to the west of the earlier complex by the military governor of Crete Gian Matteo Bembo (1550–1556), only the southernmost section survives; the remainder was demolished in 1930 to allow the reshaping of the coastal frontage.

Of the Arsenali Nuovi or Duodo, whose construction began in 1556 at the inner end of the eastern mole, and which were extended eastwards until 1608 (Arsenali Nuovissimi), only the eastern extension of the southernmost shipshed is preserved. To the south, the large two-chambered cistern built in 1615 by the provveditore generale Giacomo Zane, intended to supply water to the harbour installations, survives intact, together with the warehouse for the state monopoly of salt produced in the saltworks of Elounda and Souda.