Venetian Candia, after a prolonged siege (1648–1669), passed into the hands of the Ottomans (1669–1898). Renamed Kandiye, the city became an important military, economic and religious centre of the island.

On 4 October 1669, the Ottomans entered a city devastated by bombardment and almost deserted, following the evacuation of its Christian population. In the area of the Sabbionara Bastion, the emblems of the military units that had taken part in the siege—the “Seven Axes”—were set up. One of the few Christians who did not leave with his fellow citizens was Nikolos Kastrofylakas, who assisted the Ottoman authorities in compiling a detailed register of the houses and churches left behind by the refugees of Candia, so that they could be sold to officials and ordinary soldiers arriving in the city.

The Ottomans preserved the fortifications and the urban layout of Venetian Candia. Given the city’s strategic importance as a fortress, extensive works on the walls were undertaken immediately. The damages were repaired and the St Andrew’s Bastion was reconstructed. The harbour was strengthened with the construction of a small fort at the end of the eastern breakwater, while the fortress of Rocca a Mare was repaired and from then on known as Su Kulesi or Koules.

Outside the city’s walls, the Venetian outer works were retained: the Holy Spirit Bastion (Tasli Dambia, “rocky earthwork”), the Pantokrator Bastion (Kanli Dambia, “bloody earthwork”), and St Nicholas Bastion (Yerli Dambia, “earthwork of the locals”), as well as the fort of St Demetrios (Ak Dambia, “white earthwork”). Near the gates of the Pantokrator and Jesus, two large Muslim cemeteries were developed.

The city’s Venetian administrative centre, the Palazzo Ducale, was auctioned in 1671 and assigned to the waqf of the vizier Defterdar Ahmed Pasha, that is, to the former church of St Mark’s Church. By 1818 it served as the residence of the agha of the Janissaries, known as Aga Kapı, while the neighbouring Palazzo Generale was used as the seat of the city’s pasha.

Public granaries continued to operate at the Voltone Gate and in the adjoining Venetian Fontaco to the west. The twenty-five vaulted workshops on the ground floor of the three-storey building were auctioned and awarded to Şahin Ağa on behalf of the waqf of the Valide Sultan.

For the quartering of Ottoman troops, the Venetian barracks of St George (Imperial Janissaries), those by the Jesus Gate (the Cebecis, or armoured troops), and the Konaka of Lakkos were used. On the site of the Akrotiriani Monastery, a kışla was built for the local Janissaries. Other public buildings in the city centre were allocated to senior Ottoman officials, who—by sultanic decree granted by Köprülü Mehmed Pasha—were allowed to convert Christian churches into mosques, on the sole condition that urban properties were endowed for their upkeep. Many small churches were converted into prayer halls (mescit) and tekkes (Sufi lodges), while smaller churches and private chapels within elite houses that passed into Ottoman ownership were turned into public baths (hamams).

In the city centre, at the Venetian Voltone Gate—known in Ottoman times as Kemer Altı—were the Achtarika, small shops selling luxury goods, as well as the Bezesten, the covered market where precious and rare merchandise was traded. From this point radiated the city’s five main streets, lined with the principal markets. There were five large and two smaller markets, each specialising in particular products. Along the Venetian Ruga Maistra, known during Ottoman rule as Vezir Çarşı, were the wealthiest merchants. Other markets developed along the Venetian Larga Strada, today’s 1866 Street, Dikaiosynis Street, and 1821 Street. The two smaller markets were the Arasta (today Argyraki Street) and the Küçük Çarşı in the Armenian quarter.

The urban area remained divided into neighbourhoods (mahalle), whose names identified the location of properties. This system, standard practice in Ottoman administration, facilitated the allocation of fiscal and administrative obligations. The population of the neighbourhoods was mixed, as no strict segregation by religion was enforced. Nevertheless, the concentration of the Jewish community along the coastal zone of Dermatas Bay and of the Armenian community around “Kamaraki” continued.

Immediately after settling in the city, the Ottomans restored the water supply from the springs of Archanes (Kemer Suyu), which had been cut off during the siege, and built new reservoirs for the collection and distribution of water. Additional supplies for mosques, tekkes, baths, fountains and charitable water features—public and private—were also drawn from smaller springs in the surrounding area. Another major public work of the period was the creation of a sewerage system, with the construction of two enclosed stone-built conduits at key points in the city.

The city gates continued to close at sunset and to reopen at sunrise. Those who failed to enter in time spent the night with their animals in specially designed vaulted buildings (kubbe) near water sources, such as “Koronis o Magaras” on the road to Kanli Kastelli, and the “koumbedes” along the old road to Rethymno.