The Ottomans inherited a city with a rich architectural tradition and a dense building stock, including fortifications, churches, public buildings, mansions and modest dwellings. This architectural legacy was adapted to meet new needs shaped by Islamic religion and the social structures of Ottoman society.

Public buildings and the urban residences of the Venetian-Cretan elite were either used for administrative purposes or converted into konaks, the luxurious residences of wealthy Ottoman officials. Smaller houses were also remodelled and reoccupied.

Domestic architecture was organised into distinct spaces: haremlik (women’s quarters), selamlik (men’s quarters), reception rooms (divanhane), coffee rooms (kahve odası) and baths (hamam). Many properties were enclosed by high walls. The homes of prominent Ottomans were stone-built, some with tiled roofs, and included auxiliary spaces, courtyards with gardens, kiosks, fountains, wells and often water cisterns. Courtyards were paved with pebble mosaics featuring geometric and floral designs in black and white stones.

Large konaks coexisted with humble popular dwellings. These were also stone-built, but roofed with flat earthen terraces covered with a type of clay soil (“lepida”). They were single- or two-storey buildings with few rooms and no auxiliary spaces. Most, however, included gardens, cisterns and wells. Pebbled courtyards, wells and water tanks are frequently identified in archaeological excavations.

Along façades facing the main streets, wooden structures at street level housed shops and storerooms used by merchants and craftsmen. Vines trained over wooden frames shaded the streets in summer, forming arcades beneath which pedestrians could move comfortably. According to the traveller Franz Wilhelm Sieber (1817), these wooden constructions gave the city a lively and pleasant appearance.

The form of Kandiye changed radically after the devastating earthquake of 1856, which levelled much of the city. In its aftermath, and under new planning regulations issued by the Ottoman authorities, the city was rebuiltto resembell a typical Balkan Ottoman town, characterised by mosques, minarets, tower-like volumes and enclosed projecting balconies (sahnishin).

New buildings, usually two-storey with a basement, were erected on large plots enclosed by high boundary walls and opened onto stone- or pebble-paved courtyards. The ground floor was stone-built, with a limited number of small openings reinforced with timber ties, while the upper floors were timber-framed. A defining feature was the sahnishin, an enclosed projecting balcony extending beyond the ground floor line and supported by wooden or iron brackets. Roofs were timber-framed and covered with four-pitched tiled roofs.

The blending of Venetian and local architectural traditions with Balkan influences shaped the character of the city until the early decades of the 20th century.